A MAN who was convicted of sexual assault lost a High Court challenge yesterday to the use of closed-circuit television in his trial.
He had sought an order quashing his conviction in March 1994, because the children who accused him of the crime with which he was charged did not give evidence in his presence.
Dismissing his application, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, said he thought existing procedures, without a physical confrontation, were fair to the accused. "I do not think that in modern Ireland a criminal trial becomes unfair if there is not such confrontation," the judge said.
The man had challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992, which allows the reception of evidence in certain circumstances by means of a live television link.
In his action against the State, he had claimed an accused person had the right to confront physically his accuser in open court.
The State, however, submitted that the procedures in the man's case met the standard of justice required by the Constitution.
Mr Justice Costello said it seemed to him that the absence of a physical confrontation between the witness and the accused would have no significant effect on the ability of a false accuser to mislead a jury. He did not think that the jury's assessment of the credibility of a witness would be compromised by the fact that the witness did not see the accused when giving evidence.