A MAN has had his conviction for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl quashed after she admitted, nearly a decade later, that she had made up the allegations against him.
The Court of Criminal Appeal, which overturned the conviction yesterday, was told the man is to apply later to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.
The assault was alleged to have occurred in 1997, and the man received a four-year suspended sentence.
Three years ago the girl, now aged in her 20s and living outside Ireland, admitted to gardaí she had made up the allegations against the man out of “revenge and misplaced loyalty” to her family who had been in dispute with the man’s family over land.
The woman said she had done something “terribly wrong” and apologised to all affected, especially the man.
Copies of the woman’s retractions, made in November 2006, were given to the man’s solicitors in March 2008 after protracted correspondence with the Director of Public Prosecutions, the court was told.
The man had learned of the retractions as a result of a chance meeting by a member of his family with the woman in November 2006.
The man, now in his mid-30s, was found guilty by a jury at Galway Circuit Court in 1999 of assault and sexual assault of the girl near her home in Co Galway in January 1997. He had always vehemently denied the charges.
In November 2006, the woman made statements to gardaí in Co Galway in which she withdrew her complaints against him.
She admitted her original complaints were fabricated and false in their entirety, and said she wanted to clear the man’s name.
The man, represented by Hugh Hartnett SC, submitted to the appeal court yesterday that the verdict of the jury was incorrect as it was based on the evidence of the complainant which was conceded to have been false.
The court, with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, was told by Garnet Orange, for the DPP, that the appeal was not being opposed.
Mr Justice Finnegan said the court would quash the conviction.
In her statements to the Garda in 2006, the woman said her motivation for making the false allegations was “revenge and misplaced loyalty to my family”.
She said she had never come into contact with the man and had no conversations with him at any stage in his life.
She also said she was never coerced or coached by anyone.
She added she had done something “terribly wrong” and “got away with it”, whereas others, especially the man, had paid a heavy price.
She apologised to the State and all involved in the case for wasting their time and money.