Father fails in bid to overturn conviction for abuse of daughter

A man from County Leitrim has failed in his appeal against a conviction for sexually assaulting his daughter at their family home. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal at a three-judge hearing, rejecting arguments that inconsistencies in the victim's evidence rendered the conviction unsafe. The appellant was convicted in September 2021 at Carrick-on-Shannon Circuit Criminal Court on one count of sexual assault, with the jury unable to reach agreement on fourteen further similar charges. His legal team contended that discrepancies regarding the victim's age at the time of the alleged abuse, dating between 2006 and 2012, created an irreconcilable inconsistency that should have prevented the case proceeding to trial. The court found that while inconsistencies existed, the victim remained consistent on the nature of the abuse and no exceptional inconsistency warranted overturning the conviction. The judges also rejected arguments concerning the trial judge's warning to the jury regarding lack of corroborative evidence, noting it was unusually strong and repeated multiple times.