Laois man to face retrial for rape after new evidence from friend of complainant emerges

A Laois man who had his rape conviction quashed after the Court of Appeal allowed the introduction of new evidence in the case that had not been available to his defence team is to face a retrial.

The now 20-year-old appellant, who was jailed less than three months ago for raping a friend on wasteland on Halloween night in 2019 when they were both teenagers, had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal on Monday.

The new evidence is a post-trial affidavit from a then 14-year-old friend of the complainant.

Remanding the man on continuing bail, appeal court judge Mr Justice John Edwards said the case has been sent back to the Central Criminal Court where a date for a retrial will be set.

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Barrister for the now 20-year-old appellant, Ronan Munro SC, had submitted to the court that there was no apparent reason at the trial to suspect that there could be potentially important evidence to come from the girl, who was briefly mentioned. She had not been sought during what counsel submitted was a “defective” Garda investigation.

Mr Munro said that the girl who claimed she met the complainant on the night had made a sworn affidavit to gardaí of her encounter with the complainant after she learned of his unanimous jury conviction in June of this year.

Mr Munro said the affidavit states that the friend of the girl raised the question of previous sexual encounters between the defendant and the complainant, that the complainant had expressed her sexual desire for the defendant to the girl before the alleged rape and that this should have been put in front of the jury at trial.

Lawyers for the State had argued at the Court of Appeal that the evidence related only to collateral issues already tested at the trial in the case and that no-one else had observed what happened between both parties.

However, the three-judge court ruled against the State, who were also denied an opportunity to cross-examine the girl in the confines of the appeal motion, saying that both the new evidence and any cross examination in the case was a matter for a jury. In quashing the conviction at the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said the evidence was both potentially relevant and admissible. He said the court found it could be put before a jury “merely on a matter of principle”, even if that evidence was to be found to be solely collateral, as argued by the prosecution.

The man’s initial trial heard that both the complainant and the defendant left a social gathering at a Halloween bonfire to move into a wasteland area to go to the toilet.

The court heard that the girl said she was pulling up her underwear, having gone to the toilet when the accused said to her “give us a feel, give us a feel”. The girl refused, but she claimed that the defendant turned her around and raped her while she continually asked him to stop. At the time of the alleged offence, he was 16-years-old and she was a year younger, the court heard.

The now 20-year-old man had pleaded not guilty before Mr Justice Paul Burns at the Central Criminal Court to rape at the area in Laois on October 31st, 2019. He has no previous convictions.