A Kerry pimp who was jailed for 11 years for twice raping a sex worker and sending intimidating messages over Snapchat to prevent her from giving evidence has launched a bid to overturn his conviction.
Emmet O'Connor (30), from Shronemore, Rathmore, Co Kerry, was found unanimously guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in December 2020 of two counts of rape, as well as organising prostitution and intimidating a witness by sending her a drawing of a headless woman hanging upside-down from a tree. He had denied all charges.
In April 2021, Mr Justice Michael White sentenced O'Connor to eight years' imprisonment for the two rapes, to two years for organising prostitution - to run consecutively with the rape sentences - and to another consecutive year for the intimidation offence.
At his trial, the jury of six men and six women heard evidence that O’Connor told gardaí that he had rough sex with the victim at her home but insisted it was consensual and typical of their sexual relationship.
The woman told the jury that she and O’Connor had consensual rough sex a year earlier but that on September 25th, 2017, she did not consent and was crying, begging him to stop.
The woman told the trial of how he grabbed her, putting her over his shoulders and brought her upstairs in her home, threw her on the bed and twice raped her, ignoring her pleas for him to stop.
Evidence
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Michael Lynn SC, for O'Connor, said the trial judge erred in allowing the evidence of two witnesses to go before a jury without a sufficient warning that their evidence went only towards the consistency of the complaint and not towards its corroboration.
Mr Lynn said the two witnesses, in whom the woman confided soon after the rapes, added "very little" to the case but had, however, added a "prejudicial effect" against his client. The two "recent complaint" witnesses were the woman's sister, who was very concerned and became a bridge to contacting the second witness, a Ruhama counsellor.
Mr Justice George Birmingham said the woman "spoke to sister first and then made a report was that she was raped. But to get to the second conversation you had to get through the first to get to Ruhama".
The judge noted the woman's sister was concerned enough to make arrangements for the injured party to stay elsewhere from her home.
He said the trial judge had laid out the legal principles to the jury regarding corroboration evidence and then summarised the evidence.
Mr Lynn said that another ground of appeal was the introduction into the trial of late forensic evidence, after an error was noticed by gardaí that a report had not been compiled regarding the woman's underwear. Mr Lynn said his client felt a "serious grievance" in the late introduction of the evidence in the trial in the interest of fairness.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said the error in not having a report arose through cross-examination of a garda witness and asked: "So, why is it wrong that the prosecution do, in getting the report, what your side said should be done?"
"It was too late. The perception is that it is unfair and we had put our best foot forward," said Mr Lynn.
Intimidation
Mr Lynn said the witness intimidation amounted to a Snapchat picture of a drawing done by O'Connor that the jury had questioned. Mr Lynn said the judge did not adequately explain the possible issue of O'Connor's intent when sending the message.
Roisin Lacey SC, for the State, said the complaint regarding the two witnesses was "something simply raised on a recent reading of the transcript".
Ms Lacey said that "at no stage did it form the basis of any requisition to Mr Justice White", who made it "patently obvious" to the jury that the evidence was not hearsay.
"Nobody was under any illusion where that evidence came from," Ms Lacey said, adding that the trial judge had also explained the limited use of that evidence to a jury.
"Juries are not stupid and they understand the evidence, and they were entitled to know the nature of recent complaint evidence," counsel said.
Regarding the complaint about the late introduction of the forensic evidence, Ms Lacey said the defence could have got their own forensic evidence at any time.
"We say there was no prejudice as it arose out of a line of cross-examination and it was then incumbent on us [the prosecution] to deal with it," Ms Lacey said.
Regarding the intimidatory Snapchat message, Ms Lacey said the trial judge set out the nature of the offence to the jury and explained that the provision for making an inference was open to the jury.
Ms Lacey said the drawing, sent as a Snapchat image to a pool of contacts of whom the woman was one, was one of a headless woman's body hanging upside down from a tree with the words 'karma', 'bitch' and 'suffer' included.
"It could be nothing other than intimidatory," said Ms Lacey, who added that the original drawing had been signed by the accused and that "karma is a bitch" was a phrase used by the injured party in a phone call to O'Connor.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the court would reserve its judgement in the matter.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help.
