A 63-year-old retired labourer has secured a High Court order stopping his trial on child sexual abuse charges dating back to 1964.
The charges were brought following a scuffle at a funeral in 2007, when two alleged victims saw the man and claimed he sexually assaulted them. Yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Charleton ruled there was a real risk of an unfair trial.
If convicted, it would be open to the reasonable person to doubt the soundness of the man’s conviction in circumstances whereby he was “a simple man with limited recall” having to defend himself against allegations arising out of family visits almost half a century ago, the judge said.
Account also had to be taken of the fact that the man’s mother, who would have been a witness on his behalf, was dead.
In all the circumstances, he ruled the case was “one of the very few” which fell into the category of showing there was a real risk of an unfair trial.