Court refuses ‘search warrant’ appeal by Polish rapist

A man who raped a woman as she was drying her hands in a public toilet has lost an appeal against his conviction.

Przemyslaw Jakubowski, 39, was wearing women’s underwear when he grabbed the woman from behind, dragged her into a cubicle and subjected her to a 40-minute ordeal in which he raped her and threatened to kill her.

Jakubowski, a Polish native formerly of Egmont Court, Earls St, Kanturk, Co Cork, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 counts including rape, oral rape, anal rape, threats to kill, assault causing harm, sexual assault, and false imprisonment during the attack on the afternoon of March 9, 2010 in a rural town.

In June 2011, Jakubowski was sentenced to 15 years by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy after being found guilty by a jury on 11 counts.

In his appeal, he claimed a search warrant used by gardaí was invalid.

If that was so, then items obtained by gardaí during the search of his home should not have been admitted as evidence during his trial. Among the items seized were women’s underwear including an item of blue underwear, yellow underwear, and a peach slip which the victim had noticed protruding from underneath his outer clothes.

Forensic analysis determined the presence of a DNA profile on those three items matched the profile of the victim, the Court of Criminal Appeal heard.

Dismissing the appeal yesterday, a three-judge CCA panel said the trial court was right not to exclude the evidence obtained on foot of the search warrant.

The Superior Court Rules provide that failure to comply with the District Court Rules, under which the warrant was issued, “does not automatically invalidate the proceedings”, the panel said.

If the District Court rules stood alone, there “might be an interesting jurisprudential question” as to the impact of the failure to comply with the format of such rules.

However, taken in combination with the Superior Court Rules, these were “sensible provisions” and it seemed to the CCA that they applied here “with the effect that it cannot be said the search warrant was invalid“.

The CCA comprised Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell, presiding, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty, and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert.