Judgement reserved in appeal against abuse conviction

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of a 74-year-old Galway man appealing against his conviction and six-year sentence for sexually abusing two young girls over 40 years ago.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to six years imprisonment by Judge Raymond Groarke in February last year, after a Galway Circuit Criminal Court jury found him guilty of one count of buggery and 48 counts of indecent assault.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which covered a 12-year period beginning in 1968 and involved two complainants who were as young as eight years old when the abuse began.

Counsel for the applicant, Mr Patrick Giblin SC, told the court that the trial judge had erred in principle by failing to accede to a request by the accused man to “sever” the indictment and have two separate trials for each set of charges laid against him.

He said the jury may have believed that the existence of two complainants leant weight to the evidence given by each individual complainant, notwithstanding a warning given by Judge Groarke not to do so.

Mr Giblin said that evidence given by a prosecution witness invited the jury to draw an inference that one of the complainants had been assaulted in the kitchen of her home.

He said that this evidence could not be related to any count on the indictment and should not have gone before the jury in circumstances where the complainant did not give evidence of an assault having occurred in the kitchen.

Mr Giblin also said the trial judge erred by telling the jury they could not draw inferences from the accused man’s decision not to give evidence, but could have regard to fact that the only evidence before the court came from the two complainants.

He said there was a “profound danger” that this caused confusion in the minds of the jurors and rendered the trial unsatisfactory.

Presiding judge Mrs Justice Fidelma Macken, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe said the court would return judgement at a later date.