THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has quashed the conviction and ordered the retrial of a Co Waterford man accused of raping and sexually assaulting a girl from when she was aged nine.
Maurice Colbert (57), Clashmore, Co Waterford, was jailed for eight years by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy in May 2010, having been convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of rape, oral rape and sexual assault.
Mr Colbert denied all the charges which were said to have occurred at his home between January 1st, 1994, and December 31st, 1997.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal, said the court would overturn Mr Colbert’s conviction and order a retrial having found that an element of the judge’s charge to the jury was inadequate and rendered the verdict unsafe.
Isobel Kennedy SC, for Mr Colbert, had submitted that a corroboration warning given by Mr Justice McCarthy to the jurors, which concerned the criteria that had to be met before they could regard alleged lies told by the defendant as corroborative of the evidence of the complainant, was inadequate.
Ms Kennedy told the court that the trial judge was not obliged to give a corroboration warning but once the decision was taken to do so, the warning had to be clear and unmistakable.
Delivering an extemporary judgment, Mr Justice Hardiman said the warning given by Mr Justice McCarthy could not be described as clear and unmistakable and that it was not even clear if a warning was given at all. The jury must be given some reason why the law looked for corroboration, but it was unclear whether there was anything like this in the charge.
Mr Justice Hardiman remanded Mr Colbert in custody to appear on October 24th to fix a trial date.