In a move with implications for hundreds of sex abuse cases, the Director of Public Prosecutions has applied to have a final legal determination on issues often raised in High Court actions by alleged abusers aimed at stopping their trials on grounds of delayed complaints of abuse.
Mr Justice John Quirke yesterday said the DPP's move is clearly in the public interest. He directed that a number of matters be determined as preliminary issues in a "test" case, involving a former teacher who is seeking to stop his trial on 106 offences of indecent assault allegedly committed against 16 schoolboys between 1969 and 1972. The first complaint was made to gardaí in 1998.
The preliminary issues will be initially decided by the High Court on February 6th but will then be put before the Supreme Court for final determination.
Paul Anthony McDermott, for the man, opposed the DPP's application, saying his client was being used as a "guinea pig". Feichín McDonagh SC, for the DPP, said the preliminary issues would not involve further delays in the case.
Among the issues which the DPP wants clarified is whether a person charged with sexual offences is entitled to the constitutional presumption of innocence in circumstances where they have brought a judicial review application to stop their trial on grounds of delay in the making of a complaint of abuse.
Under existing law, in deciding whether the delay in making a complaint is justified or not, the High Court must initially assume the complaints are true.
The DPP also wants the courts to decide whether, as is now common practice in "sex delay"cases, he is required to have complainants of sex abuse psychologically or psychiatrically assessed in order to address claims by alleged abusers that the delay in the making of the complaint of abuse is excessive and a breach of their rights to a fair trial.
The current practice is for the DPP to have the alleged victim assessed in order to establish the reasons for the delay in bringing complaints, and whether it was due to the accused's own actions. In more recent cases, a practice is evolving where the accused seek to have the complainants interviewed by the accused's own experts. This involves further delays.
In many cases psychologists and psychiatrists have testified the delay was due to the effects of abuse.
