A "true predator" jailed for sexually abusing 14 girls has failed in a bid to have his conviction overturned in a case where his lawyers argued that the announcement of the first Covid lockdown could have put pressure on the jury.
At his 2020 trial, the Central Criminal Court heard that from May 1994 up to February 2001 the male carried out sexual assaults on a total of 14 children.
He pleaded guilty in 2002 to attacks on 10 of these victims and received a prison sentence of nine years with two suspended. He denied sexually assaulting four other girls.
He continued to deny these offences during his trial in March 2020, but a jury convicted him of 30 counts of sexual assaults of the four girls, who were aged between 11 and 17. Ms Justice Tara Burns jailed him for seven years on those offences.
Bribes
The trial heard that the male would bribe the children to enter his apartment "lair" with money, jewellery and cigarettes before "pouncing" on them.
On Tuesday, the three-judge Court of Appeal rejected several grounds submitted by lawyers for the 60-year-old male, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his victims.
His legal team argued that, among other points raised, that there was a possibility that the jury may have been under pressure due to the first Covid lockdown being announced the day before they began deliberating on March 13th, 2020.
It was further argued that the conviction was unsafe on the grounds of missing evidence, a delay in prosecution, issues with identification evidence, and it was also submitted that the jury was misdirected by the trial judge.
Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, for the male, had argued that on March 12th, 2020, when the jury was being charged, the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made an "absolutely unprecedented" statement regarding the closing of schools, childcare services and colleges, which were to shut the next day.
Covid concerns
"Lots of people were worried and there was an incentive there to get out as soon as possible. There was a real risk that the jurors would feel under pressure to return a verdict," said counsel of the two hours the jury took to convict.
Counsel had said his client had also been "grossly" prejudiced by the introduction of evidence in front of the jury by a witness who mentioned that the male had been "locked up" in England. Mr Ó Lideadha had also submitted that his client's trial was dealing with complaints that were "decades" after the event, which was "inherently unfair".
Mr Ó Lideadha had said that Facebook messages between complainants had been deleted that could have shown if pressure had been put on one of the complainants to make a statement, which, if so, could have helped the defence.
Counsel had said one of the complainants, a 12-year-old who had been drinking at his client's apartment, had been facing away from a male who abused her and he submitted that this male could have been another man.
Mr Ó Lideadha further stated that the trial judge also did not go far enough when charging the jury in regard to the "substantial delays" in the prosecution.
On Tuesday, presiding judge Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, upheld the conviction and said the jury had not "disregarded their oath" at the time of their deliberations.
In rejecting the male's appeal, Mr Justice Birmingham said: "It is clear from the very careful ruling of the trial judge that she was acutely conscious of the fact that the overriding concern for her had to be to determine whether a fair trial could be achieved."
At sentencing, Ms Justice Burns described the man as “a true predator” who offered his victims an "easy-going place of refuge" before "pouncing and subjecting them to his insidious sexual activity”.
