A 59-YEAR-OLD man who died at Arbour Hill prison early yesterday morning had learned on Wednesday that he was to be tried for the alleged rape and sexual assault of three of his daughters more than 20 years ago.
In what was considered a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his claim that he could not be fairly tried because the alleged offences had happened so long ago.
The man was found dead in his cell at the Dublin prison early yesterday. It is thought he suffered a heart attack. Prison officials said he died of "natural causes".
It is understood that the man's daughters were told yesterday that their father had died in the jail.
The Munster man, who cannot be named, had faced trial on charges of raping and indecently assaulting three of his daughters between 1963 and 1973. After his arrest in 1992 he had sought a High Court order to prohibit prosecution. He claimed he had not been accused of offences on specific dates and that the lapse of time, and the death of his wife in 1991, meant she could not corroborate his denial of the charges.
The High Court rejected his application and the man appealed to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday in the Supreme Court, Ms Justice Denham said the court judged that the trial should go ahead.
She said the man faced an indictment of 69 charges involving rape or indecent assault of three of his daughters, members of a large family. He had denied the charges, and said he could not remember his movements between 1963 and 1974.
Ms Justice Denham said it was necessary to balance his rights with the community's right to have criminal offences prosecuted, and added that the main reason for the delay was that the man's dominance over his daughters meant they were psychologically incapable of making a complaint about him until 1991.
The Fine Gael TD Mr Alan Shatter said yesterday that in the light of the Supreme Court judgment, the Director of Public Prosecutions should now reopen all files relating to cases of alleged child sexual abuse that occurred many years ago.
"Following on from this week's decision of the Supreme Court, I believe that in many cases earlier decisions made not to prosecute can now be quite properly reversed," he said.