A Co Laois man jailed for five years for sexually assaulting and imprisoning a girl was freed on bail by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday after it quashed his conviction and ordered a retrial.
The three-judge court overturned the conviction of the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, imposed at Tullamore Circuit Court last February. He was convicted by a majority jury verdict of sexually assaulting a then 16-yearold girl, falsely imprisoning her and having a knife.
His appeal centred on the visual identification of the man by the girl, as no one else saw the alleged assault.
Mr Justice Barrington, with Mr Justice O'Higgins and Mr Justice O'Neill, said the victim merely had a fleeting glance at her assailant during the assault but the man was known to her.
The trial itself was a model of fairness where the trial judge was concerned. The appellant had initially said he was clean-shaven on the date of the alleged assault but a video showed him with several days' growth four days later.
The jury had asked questions about the issue after the girl said her assailant had facial hair. The jury had been given the wrong information due to a genuine error about a matter they considered was so material they asked about it.