Convicted robber jailed for life for rape of partner's daughter

A convicted armed robber who raped his partner’s teenage daughter after she returned home from "The Vatican" disco in Dublin has been jailed for life by Mr Justice Paul Carney.

Christopher Griffin (aged 37), of Ridgewood Green, Swords and formerly of Canon Lillis Avenue, in the north inner city, was found guilty by a jury in January 18 last on 11 counts of rape and sexual assault.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court returned unanimous verdicts on all the charges following just under five hours deliberations on day-10 of the trial and after spending one night in a hotel.

Griffin was convicted on one count of oral rape in 1998, one of rape in 2001 and nine charges of indecently assaulting the victim on dates from 1993 to 1998.

The now 21-year-old victim consented to having Griffin named in media reports of the trial. Griffin, a father of two daughters, had pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of his trial in December.

Mr Justice Carney directed that Griffin be registered as a sex offender and also that a victim impact report be prepared for the sentence hearing.

The trial and the sentence hearing were both held in Cloverhill Courthouse under strict security conditions due to tensions between feuding factions in the north inner city area.

Detective Sergeant Walter O’Connell on the direction of Mr Justice Carney, told the court of serious incidents - including two fatal shootings - in which firearms and grenades had been used by opposing factions to intimidate each other as a result of the trial.

Det. Sgt O’Connell told of the fatal shootings in the inner city area of Gerard Byrne on December 13, just after this trial began, and of Stephen Ledden in his own house on December 27.

He told prosecuting counsel, Ms Deirdre Murphy SC (with Mr Padraig Dwyer BL), that Griffin’s 18 previous convictions included a nine year prison sentence in 1987 for robbery and drugs dealing and three years, also in 1987, and six years in 1986 for firearms crimes including possession of guns and ammunition.

Det. Sgt O’Connell said that five shots were discharged on October 7, 2005 through the front sitting-room window of Griffin’s home in Swords.

"He was struck by one bullet causing an injury to his elbow but though he came face to face with his assailant and should have been able to identify him, Griffin would not co-operate with the garda investigation," he said.

Det. Sgt O‘Connell said that a lone gunman alighted from a car at Oriel Street in the inner city area at about 6am on November 5, 2006 and walked into a nearby street where he fired three shots into the complainant’s family home, "two into the upstairs bedrooms and one into the downstairs sitting room".

Det. Sgt O‘Connell said that a few minutes later shots were fired into another house in an adjacent area, "two shots through the sitting room window, one through the hall door and two into a man’s jeep".

Nobody was injured in either of these incident though the houses were occupied at the time. He said gardaí recovered four shell cases from the first scene and five from the second shooting.

The next night, November 6, 2006, a hand grenade was thrown at about 9.35 into the rear garden of Griffin’s home in Swords and exploded, causing extensive damage to the rear patio door, the ceiling in the house and a paved area in the garden.

Det. Sgt O‘Connell said gardaí reported that Griffin was in the house with one of his children when his attackers arrived and saw and recognised them but he would not co-operate with the investigating detectives.

Shortly afterwards at about 10 p.m, on the same night, a grenade was fired at a Finglas house where a relative of Griffin lived. Nobody was present at the time and nobody was injured.

Det. Gda O’Connell agreed that the incidents on November 6, 2006 "appeared to be in retaliation for the incidents of the previous night in the inner city area".

As a result of these incidents, he said the inner city area "is now saturated with armed gardaí and but for this strong garda presence other killings would have happened".

A report read into the court record by Mr Justice Carney in the absence of the jury at the start of the trial, also noted that there were "a number of incidents between the feuding families" in the vicinity of the Four Courts at Griffin’s first Central Criminal Court trial in May 2006 on the same charges "and a strong garda presence was maintained in order to prevent a serious confrontation".

The report noted also that as the May 2006 trial proceeded the jury "was aware of the continuous presence of the opposing factions in the vicinity of the Court and was intimidated by their presence".

Mr Justice Carney recorded that the jurors in that trial requested a garda escort from the precincts of the Four Courts after the case ended in disagreement. The report said it was the belief of the investigating gardaí that efforts were being made "to intimidate the jurors".

"There is a grave possibility that incidents will escalate as the new trial date approaches. In an effort to keep control on this volatile situation armed detectives patrol the inner-city area around the clock and two uniform members are confined to a beat in the area of where the two feuding families are residing," the report said.

The report concluded that it was a prosecution belief "that this is one of those exceptional cases" where an application should be made to the High Court under section 48 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 to transfer the trial from the Central Criminal Court to the Special Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Carney said, in the absence of the jury at the start of the second trial last December, that it was his preference to hold it in Green Street Courthouse but as that building was not available then the only other option was to move it to Cloverhill Courthouse where everyone could be subjected to security screening.

He said that, for example, people wearing bullet-proof vests would not be allowed into court and he read the garda security report regarding the violent tensions into the trial transcript, stating: "So lets have no more nonsense about that" in rejecting repeated defence objections to holding the trial in Cloverhill Courthouse.