The Supreme Court has dismissed an attempt by a man charged with rape to prevent his trial going ahead.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mrs Justice Susan Denham said the man had not made out an arguable case that there was a serious risk of an unfair trial.
The accused man had sought to stop the trial going ahead on the grounds that he was entitled to be informed of the names of two persons known to the complainant.
He said those unidentified persons were material to his defence and that, without this information, his defence will be prejudiced.
The High Court had refused the man's application and he appealed that refusal to the Supreme Court.
Giving the Supreme Court decision, Mrs Justice Denham said the law in relation to the experience of a complainant in a rape case is clear.
No evidence might be adduced and no question could be asked in cross examination about any sexual experience of a complainant. Mrs Justice Denham said the applicant was, in effect, seeking to force the complainant, in advance of the trial, to name persons with whom she may or may not have been intimate at a time considerably prior to the actual events which were the subject matter of the prosecution.
To permit this would be to introduce a back door to evade the policy already laid down about the sexual experience of a complainant, she said.