Court grants retrial to man who pleaded guilty to rape

In a case described by the Court of Criminal Appeal as "unique", a Dublin man who was jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to the rape of his half-sister has been granted a retrial.

The 50-year-old man was freed on bail yesterday on conditions, including an undertaking to stay away from his half-sister.

The man had pleaded guilty in April 1997 to one count of rape of his half-sister - who is now in her mid-40s - in 1994 but applied to the appeals court to set aside the plea. When he entered the plea, he claimed he was unaware of a number of statements, particularly a form of diary kept by his half-sister, which were not in the original Book of Evidence.

His counsel, Mr Brendan Grogan SC, was also unaware of these documents.

The man pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual assault and was jailed for five years for the former and four for the latter, to run concurrently with the 15-year sentence for rape.

He has completed his sentences for those offences.

In his proceedings before the CCA, he asked the court to set aside his plea of guilty to the rape and sexual assault charges.

Giving judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Geoghegan, presiding, said it was admitted that when the half-sister was a teenager, she had sexual intercourse with the accused on a number of occasions and had borne a child to him. He had pleaded guilty to counts of unlawful carnal knowledge regarding that period and did not seek to alter that plea.

The judge noted the man had initially denied he raped his half-sister on April 16th 1994 but later admitted it in a statement to garda∅. Mr Justice Geoghegan said the man, "at least by implication" had denied all charges of rape in another statement.

The man had told Mr Grogan he wanted to plead not guilty to rape but could not deny the earlier charges in relation to incest. The man stated Mr Grogan had said he would find examining the half-sister difficult as he had "nothing to go on".

In November 1996, some months before the trial, the Chief State Solicitor had sent to the man's solicitor a book of 27 statements and notes said to have been made by the half-sister. Two further statements were also provided. Mr Grogan had no recollection of seeing those documents and also said, having read them since, he would not have said there was "nothing to go on" and would have advised further inquiries.

Mr Justice Geoghegan said a form of diary kept by the half-sister showed her to have been "a seriously disturbed person". The additional statements also showed the woman complained to the garda∅ of intimidation and threats to force her to withdraw her complaints but there was no evidence from others that they had heard any form of rows or commotion.

It was clear a case could be made by the man that his half-sister was an unreliable person with serious psychological problems and it was possible a jury would feel it unsafe to convict on her evidence, the judge said.

The court considered it unsafe to allow the conviction to stand and ordered a retrial.