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Conviction for child pornography offences was safe
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Court of Appeal dismisses appeal against conviction for child pornography offences, on the grounds that: (a) the argument that the defence could not advance its argument because of the unavailability of a witness who appeared to have no admissible evidence to advance was all but unstatable; (b) the prosecution had proven its case on the lawfulness and validity of the warrant and subsequent search; (c) the trial judge was correct in leaving matters to the consideration of the jury; and (d) the trial judge had charged the jury correctly.
Appeal against conviction for four counts of knowingly possessing child pornography - appellant retired member of An Garda Síochána - jury was discharged from first trial of trial judge's own motion on the basis that the jury had been absent for a long time and that the case was not ready to proceed - lengthy voir dire involving cross-examination of detective superintendent - retrial resulted in verdict of guilty on four out of five counts - whether judge erred in her rulings relating to an unavailable witness, being the detective superintendent who gave evidence in the first trial but then tragically died - whether judge erred in relation to the search conducted by Gardaí - judge erred in refusing an application for a direction - whether judge's charge contained errors.
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