Decision of DPP to proceed with one Bill of Indictment before another did not put accused at unfair disadvantage

Criminal law – appeal of conviction for indecent assault – defendant was at that time a Christian Brother in a teaching role – whether the defence was placed at a strategic disadvantage by the prosecution’s decision to proceed with Bill Number LK 102/2012 ahead of Bill Number LK 93/2010 even though the latter was first in time – no error of principle in the trial judge’s ruling – defence has no entitlement to expect that they would be strategically advantaged by the prosecution – whether the trial judge was wrong to refuse to direct separate trials of the counts relating to different school years – there was clear evidence of system, striking similarities, and of dominion sufficient to justify the trial judge in refusing to order separate trials – failure of the trial judge to grant a direction – undue leniency – whether an overall sentence of 40 months' imprisonment with the final 20 months suspended was unduly lenient – while sentences were lenient, they were not unduly lenient in the sense of being significantly outside of the sentencing judge’s margin of appreciation and outside of it to such a degree as to represent a clear departure from the norm – appeal of conviction dismissed – appeal against sentence dismissed.