Supreme Court dismisses appeal by father convicted of raping his daughter

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

The Supreme Court dismissed a father’s appeal against his convictions for raping and sexually assaulting his daughter. In its judgment on 18 March 2021, the court found that proposed evidence suggesting she had admitted lying at his trial was not credible and gave no basis to overturn the verdict.

A Central Criminal Court jury convicted the man on 22 February 2018 of three counts of rape, one count of rape by an Irish citizen outside the State, five further counts of rape under section 4 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, and six counts of sexual assault of a child by an Irish citizen outside the State. The offences occurred in Ireland and New Zealand between March 2006 and March 2010.

He had pleaded not guilty to all offences and maintained his innocence. On 23 April 2018, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy sentenced him to 15 years for each rape count, with the final year suspended on conditions, and six years for each sexual assault count. The sentences were concurrent and dated from 8 February 2018.

The man appealed his convictions and sought to introduce evidence that his daughter had recanted. He told the appeal court that she visited him in prison after the trial because she felt remorse and guilt, said she was sorry and asked how she could get him out.

His daughter said she had been manipulated into visiting after being told he was starving himself to death. She said she told him she would withdraw her statement because she believed he would die in prison, but denied saying he was not a rapist or had not done those things to her.

The Court of Appeal heard live evidence, rejected the proposed post-conviction evidence as unworthy of belief and dismissed the conviction appeal on 20 December 2019. Delivering the Supreme Court’s judgment, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said the claims of a confession were not credible in the context of sustained manipulation. The court said the daughter had remained adamant that her father raped her and had never accepted that she admitted lying at trial.