The Supreme Court will give its detailed reasons on Monday next for granting an appeal by the State last month against a High Court decision to free Mr A, a 41-year-old man serving a sentence for the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl. The five-judge court ordered his immediate rearrest on June 2nd last and Mr A was arrested that evening.
When granting the State's appeal, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, said the court would give its reasons in a judgment to be delivered at a later stage. That judgment will be delivered on Monday.
In a brief outline last month of the basis for the Supreme Court's decision, the court ruled that Mr A's claim that he was entitled to release on the basis of the Supreme Court decision striking down the law on statutory rape (which decision was made in another case, the CC case, on grounds it did not allow a defence of mistake as to age) was, in the circumstances of A's case, a "novel assertion" and not well founded.
In Mr A's case, it was never asserted that Mr A was denied any constitutional right to advance a defence relating to mistake about age since he had never asserted that he had reasonable grounds for believing that the girl in his case was over 15, the Chief Justice said. His counsel had never asserted that he had suffered any denial of justice or of procedural fairness.
The Chief Justice also said that Mr A had fully acquiesced in the jurisdiction of the court by entering a plea of guilty and at no stage did he put forward the defence that the girl was of the full age.
The State's appeal arose days after the High Court ordered Mr A's release after finding that his continued detention at Arbour Hill prison, where he had served 18 months of a three-year sentence, was unlawful in light of the Supreme Court decision in the CC case on May 23rd striking down the law on statutory rape.
