Court factors in daughter's "right to closure" in refusing rapist father more time to lodge appeal

The Court of Appeal in Dublin today dismissed an application by a 77-year-old Roscommon man to extend the time within which he could appeal his convictions for sexual abuse and rape. The man, a former professional soccer player, was convicted by Central Criminal Court jury in May 2011 on sixty counts of sexual abuse and fourteen counts of rape. The offences allegedly occurred between January 2002 and September 2006 at locations in Galway and Roscommon. Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan noted the applicant's delay in lodging an appeal and rejected a psychological report submitted on his behalf as being of extremely limited value. The judge stated that the court must consider the victim's entitlement to closure and found the applicant had failed to establish that the interests of justice warranted an appeal extension. However, the court granted a twenty-one day extension for the applicant to lodge a sentence appeal, adopting its traditionally flexible approach to late sentence appeals.