Female social worker jailed for defiling boy (16) in State care fails to overturn conviction

A social worker who brought a boy in the care of the State to her home and defiled him will remain behind bars, after losing a bid to overturn her conviction on the grounds that Facebook messages they exchanged should not have been put before the jury.

The 44-year-old woman, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of her victim, appealed the conviction after arguing that the State’s request to the social media giant for the messages was made under the wrong section of a 2008 treaty on mutual legal assistance between Ireland and the United States.

She was jailed for four years with the final two years suspended by Judge Cormac Quinn sitting at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court in November 2022. The woman had pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury after an 11-day trial.

The boy, who was 16 at the time, was in her care at a midlands school when she sexually defiled him at her home on unknown dates between April 1st and May 15th, 2016.

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At the Court of Appeal hearing last October, Dermot Cahill SC, for the woman, submitted that the request for Facebook messages between the appellant and the boy that were used in the trial was not made by the requisite body.

It was submitted by the appellant’s lawyers that the request for the material provided was made not by the Central Authority for Ireland (the Minister for Justice) as it should be but rather by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and was not, therefore, in accordance with the Ireland/US Treaty.

It was also submitted that there was insufficient evidence that the “certificate of authenticity” signed by an official of Facebook Inc actually related to the disc containing the material which the prosecution put into evidence.

In reply, Michael Delaney SC for the State had argued: “There is no requirement under the treaty that the written request be formulated or signed by the Central Authority, merely that it be transmitted by the Central Authority.”

Mr Delaney said the State was “entitled to rely on the certificate and the process” which had satisfied US authorities and the Department of Justice.

“It was important evidence. A degree of common sense must prevail in what the prosecution has to do,” said Mr Delaney.

“The treaty does not require, formally, the ‘central authority’ to draft the request. By ‘central authority’ we understand that to mean the transmission or sending of the document, rather than the compiling of it,” said Mr Delaney.

In dismissing the appeal on Thursday, Ms Justice Tara Burns said the treaty insisted the transmission of the mutual assistance request had to be made by the relevant central authority – the Department of Justice - but the request itself could be formulated by the DPP.

“This, of course, makes complete sense, as the designated authority could not possibly be in the position to understand the details of the request to be made in a given prosecution,” Ms Justice Burns said.

She said that the receipt of Facebook information on dates outside of the timeframe requested did not mean it could not be put before a jury. The appellant had argued that as the Facebook request did not extend to material beyond May 18th, 2016, the extra material could therefore not be introduced into evidence. Irish authorities actually received Facebook account information extending to May 31st, 2016, which the prosecution put before the jury.

“The material was issued on foot of a search warrant and was subject to a certificate of authenticity. The fact that material was provided which was outside the timeframe of the original request did not render its production unlawful,” said Ms Justice Burns.

Ms Justice Burns said the mutual assistance request was made “under the appropriate international convention” and was “correctly admitted into evidence despite the fact that material relating to a wider time period than that requested was provided”.

She said the evidence was “sufficiently connected with the certificate of authority” and that it was open to the jury to accept or reject its authenticity regarding the disc received from Facebook.

“In circumstances where we have not upheld any of the appellant’s grounds of appeal, her appeal against conviction is dismissed,” said Ms Justice Burns.

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