The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday quashed the conviction of a Dublin man for the rape of a young man and ordered a retrial.
Mr Justice Lynch, presiding, said the decision to overturn the conviction, relating to an alleged offence of rape on March 4th, 1994, arose from an "unfortunate oversight" in that information related to the psychiatric history of the complainant did not become available to the defence, other than in a sort of tentative way from the accused himself.
He said the State had conceded that, had it been aware of the information, it would have passed it to the defence. It was conceded the information might have influenced the jury.
Mr Justice Lynch, sitting with Ms Justice McGuinness and Mr Justice Quirke, said the court would set aside the conviction as unsafe and direct that a new trial be ordered.