A man has lost a High Court attempt to stop his trial on 48 charges of indecent assault of his former partner's two daughters. The alleged assaults began when one girl was aged 11 and when the second was aged six.
In the course of his judgment, Mr Justice John Quirke said evidence in the case established that a detective unit set up in the late 1990s to investigate alleged crimes of sexual abuse was under-resourced and that the volume of work imposed on the unit was far greater than had been anticipated.
The judge yesterday dismissed the 60-year-old man's claim that, because of the delay in reporting and prosecuting the alleged offences, the first of which dates back to 1976, his right to a fair trial was prejudiced in relation to the alleged assaults on the two girls.
However, because no evidence had been adduced to explain the delay in reporting an alleged assault on a son of the man's former partner, which assault allegedly occurred on a date between 1976 and 1984 when the boy was aged between four and 12 years, the judge granted an order restraining the man's trial on that charge. A formal complaint relating to that alleged assault was made in 1990.
In relation to the delay in reporting the alleged assaults on the girls, the judge said he was satisfied that while the delay was inordinate, it had been adequately explained as due to the man having dominated the girls for several years. The judge said he was satisfied both girls were suffering from psychological difficulties primarily caused by the alleged abuse.
Other contributory factors included their unstable home and family circumstances, their parents' separation and the violence which they witnessed being perpetrated on their mother by their stepfather, the applicant, the judge said. Another factor was the apparent rape of one of the girls by another man, which allegedly occurred when she was aged 13 and which led to the birth of her first child.
While finding that explanations offered for substantial periods of delay by the prosecuting authorities were unsatisfactory, the judge said it could not be said the investigation into the alleged assaults was carried out in a reprehensible manner and he found the overall prosecutorial delay of some four years was not such as to warrant an order restraining the prosecution.