High court expects men to seek to overturn rape convictions

THE High Court is expected to receive applications in the coming week from men seeking to overturn convictions for statutory rape following Tuesday’s landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.

According to the Prison Service, seven prisoners are at present serving sentences having being convicted solely under Section 1.1 of the 1935 Act, found to be unconstitutional.

There are additional prisoners who were convicted under the section but had convictions for other charges also.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is also considering whether or not to proceed with prosecutions for such offences.

A spokeswoman for the DPP said yesterday: “We are studying the judgment and considering the implications and checking the number of cases that might be affected.”

The Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a law which made sex with a girl under the age of 15 automatically a crime.

The Courts Service estimates that at least 54 people have been convicted of statutory rape or unlawful carnal knowledge since 2000.

These include people currently in prison and those who have served their sentences. Those convicted since 2001 were also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Legal experts said many of these would now appeal their convictions and also apply to have their names removed from the register.

“I would anticipate applications being brought to the High Court in very early course,” said barrister Sean Gillane.

He said it was not clear whether these people would succeed.

“There are two opposing views: one would be that anyone serving a sentence for a conviction under this legislation will be in a position to challenge the lawfulness of that detention.

“The alternative view is that the declaration of unconstitutionality is prospective, it could be argued that it looks forward. I don’t know if that argument would succeed, but certainly in the past in relation to constitutional challenges it has been held that once a section is declared unconstitutional it’s effect is prospective rather than retrospective.”

Tom O’Malley, senior law lecturer at NUI Galway, agreed that the main issue to be decided by the courts was whether the ruling would be prospective or retrospective.

“I think probably the attitude the court will take in the future will be that any one of those persons who was convicted in the past had the opportunity to contest the constitutionality of that act and if they didn’t they acquiesced to the law, so I don’t think you are going to see a whole lot of convictions invalidated.

The Prison Service was yesterday calculating how many people are currently in custody for statutory rape.