A jury in the Central Criminal Court trial of a man charged with raping two Dublin prostitutes has been discharged by Mr Justice Carney following the revelation of evidence which was not disclosed to the defence.
Mr Marcus Daly SC, prosecuting, told the court that matters pertaining to the disclosure of evidence only came to his attention on Monday evening.
The 32-year-old security worker had pleaded not guilty to seven charges relating to offences against two prostitutes which are alleged to have occurred on or about November 8th, 1998, at Blackhall Place, Dublin.
Mr Daly said he was informed by Det Insp Christopher Kelly, who was in charge of the investigation, that one of the alleged victims told him she was present at an identification parade involving another suspect. She also told him that all the men in that parade wore plasters on their faces. Gardai told the court no such parade took place.
Insp Kelly said that when the alleged victims told him this he checked the custody record in the Bridewell station, which showed that there was another ID parade involving a different suspect. The file on the other suspect was not sent to the Chief State Solicitor's Office because that man had been ruled out of the investigation.
When he found out about this parade he notified prosecuting counsel and made all notes of interviews and statements from the other suspect available.
Insp Kelly told Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, that it was a conscious decision to leave out these files because he did not think they were relevant. He accepted Mr O'Higgins's suggestions that these records could have had relevance to his client's case.
Mr O'Higgins said the investigating gardai were negligent in not disclosing all the documents relating to the investigation.