A man's appeal against his conviction for indecently assaulting a young girl over a nine-year period has been dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The 46-year-old man, a garage worker who cannot be named for legal reasons, had appealed against the conviction imposed in December 2006 after he was found guilty of 65 counts of indecent assault by a jury at a Circuit Criminal Court in the midlands.
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
The assaults took place at a number of locations including the man's place of employment and in cars he was working on or driving in between February 1986 and December 1995.
The victim was just six years of age when the assaults began.
The woman first made a complaint about the man to the Garda in 2002.
Moving the appeal yesterday, Denis Vaughan Buckley SC said the appeal was being brought on grounds including that the trial judge had erred by not giving a warning about uncorroborated evidence during his charge to the jury.
It was further claimed the judge's decision not to give such a warning was not properly explained.
Mr Buckley also argued that the trial judge had erred by not discharging the jury when the victim, who is now 27 years of age, gave evidence which he said was prejudicial to his client.
An additional ground was that the trial judge had not properly referred to the delay of several years between the last incident of when the woman said she was assaulted by the man and the time when she first made a complaint to the authorities.
Opposing the appeal, Aidan Doyle, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the trial judge did not have to give a warning about uncorroborated evidence as that was discretionary.
Dismissing the appeal, the three-judge court, with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding, and sitting with Mr Justice John Hedigan and Mr Justice George Birmingham, said the court was satisfied that no error in principle had been committed by the trial judge.
No valid grounds for appeal had been forwarded, the judge said.