Man who sexually abused daughters loses appeal against conviction

The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed an appeal brought by a 39-year-old man against his conviction for sexually assaulting his two young daughters.

Today the court of Ms Justice Fidelma Macken sitting with Mr Justice George Bermingham, and Mr Justice Daniel O'Keeffe rejected claims by man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, that the conviction he received at Dublin Circuit Court in November 2007 in respect of several charges of sexual assault against his children is unsafe and should be quashed.

The assaults took place over a number of years in the Midlands between 2001 and 2004 when one child was six and the other five years of age. The man was found guilty by a jury following a 14-day trial. He subsequently received a lengthy prison sentence for the offences.

In his appeal the man claimed that the judge at his trial, Judge Des Hogan, erred by failing to warn the jury about the dangers of convicting him on the children's evidence in the absence of corroboration of the events which the charges against the man were based on.

He also claimed that Judge Hogan erred by admitting a pre-trial statement made by one of his daughters, which consisted of video recordings of interviews conducted between the child and a psychologist and a note of an interview with the girl taken by a garda.

The prosecution sought to have this material admitted after the trial judge held that the evidence the girl gave at the trial was materially inconsistent with pre-trial statements given by her.

By allowing that statement to go before the jury Judge Hogan it was claimed had erred in his interpretation of the law (Section 16 of the Criminal Justice Act) relating to the issue of the reliability of pre-trial allegations made by one of his daughters, and if that statement was voluntarily made.

The state had opposed the appeal and argued that the conviction was safe.

In their judgment the CCA dismissed all grounds of the appeal. The CCA said that the trial judge had not erred by admitting the pre-trial statements. The CCA said it was satisfied that Judge Hogan paid careful attention to all the terms of section 16, dealt with each of the required conditions, and reached a decision that could not be impugned.

No grounds, the CCA added, were put forward to support the claim that he misdirected himself in law, or that in deciding to admit the girl's pre-trial statement he committed any error in law. The CCA also held that the it was clear that the trial Judge had given an appropriate warning in relation to corroboration.