State appeals acquittal in alleged robbery of Laois pensioner

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The State appealed the acquittal of a man accused of robbing an elderly Laois woman of her pension and holiday money at her back door. The 38-year-old cannot be named for legal reasons. The proceedings were reported on 15 July 2022.

He was acquitted of the robbery charge in May 2021 after Trial Judge Keenan Johnson excluded identification evidence and directed the jury to acquit him. It was alleged that he had followed the woman home from SuperValu in Portarlington and taken her purse.

The defence argued that an informal identification line-up at Portarlington Garda Station was unfair. The man had refused a formal line-up, and gardaí arranged for seven men, including him, to walk along a corridor without his knowledge. The defence said he had been marked out because he was the only man to speak, and was also the only participant in custody and without shoes.

At the Court of Appeal on 15 July 2022, Michael Delaney SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the woman recognised the accused before he spoke and later remembered his voice. He also cited CCTV and clothing fibres as corroboration, which the trial judge had not allowed to be introduced.

James Dwyer SC, for the respondent, questioned whether the identification was reliable and fair. He said a Garda sergeant contradicted the woman's claim that she immediately told him her alleged robber was in the line-up. The Court of Appeal reserved judgment on the appeal, which the Director of Public Prosecutions brought under Section 23 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2010.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.