Child rape conviction to be appealed over juror’s ‘wink’

A drama teacher who raped a student when she was around seven is to launch an appeal against his conviction because a juror was allegedly “smiling and winking” at gardaí during his trial.

Colm Smyth, defending, told a sentencing hearing he had nothing to say in mitigation because his client maintained his innocence and rejected the verdict.

However, he said an appeal was to be launched against the verdict and one of the issues would be the juror’s alleged behaviour during the trial which took place last month.