Court to hear State's appeal on Mr A

Court report: The Supreme Court hears tomorrow the State's appeal against this week's High Court decision to free a 41-year-old man jailed for three years in late 2004 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl.

The man, identified as Mr A, was released on Tuesday after last week's Supreme Court decision which struck down as unconstitutional the 1935 law outlawing statutory rape. Ms Justice Mary Laffoy refused a stay on his release pending an appeal to the Supreme Court, saying she had no jurisdiction to grant such a stay.

The 1935 law (Section 1.1 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 1935) had made it an automatic offence for a man to have sex with a girl under 15 years of age. The Supreme Court, in a case brought by CC (aged 18 when the admitted intercourse occurred and who claimed it was consensual and that the girl told him she was older) declared it unconstitutional on a number of grounds.

Those grounds included that, in cases of consensual intercourse, Section 1.1 did not allow for a defence of genuine belief that the victim was older.

The State yesterday asked the Supreme Court to hear as soon as possible its appeal against the High Court order releasing the man. Gerard Hogan SC, for the State, said it was a matter of extreme urgency and asked the court to hear the appeal tomorrow.

Mr Hogan said the case affected not just Mr A but other people also. The issue before the High Court in the Mr A case was "the after effect of" the Supreme Court ruling. His side had prepared a comprehensive notice of appeal which stated, among other grounds, that there was a valid conviction in Mr A's case as he had knowingly pleaded guilty.

Another ground of appeal was that Mr A had admitted he knew his victim was under age, so he did not have the necessary legal standing to make the argument of genuine mistake about age made in the CC case, counsel said. Had the man taken judicial review proceedings challenging his conviction, he would not have succeeded, Mr Hogan added.

Conor Devally SC, for the man, said his side would facilitate the appeal being heard as soon as possible.

Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, said the case involved complex arguments the answers to which could not be just popped out "of a self-service machine". Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan said the court would need time to consider the legal submissions.

After considering the application, the chief justice directed that submissions for the State should be filed later yesterday and submissions for the man be filed by today. The court would then hear the appeal tomorrow, he said.