'Rape witness' admits lying to get back at nun
A young woman gave false evidence against a former nun because she hated her and wanted to get back at her, a court heard today.
Nora Wall, 57, is seeking a certificate declaring a miscarriage of justice after she was wrongfully convicted of the rape of a young girl in 1999.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal, senior counsel, John Rogers, said that there had been a significant amount of new material discovered since that trial, particularly the statement made to garda in April 2001 by Patricia Phelan.
This 32-year-old woman had lived at the St Michael’s child care centre in Capp, County Watford, with Regina Walsh, the young woman who complained to gardaí that she had been held down there on an unknown date in 1987 or 1988 by Sister Dominic (Nora Wall) and raped by a homeless man, Pablo McCabe.
The court heard that Phelan met Ms Walsh in August 1996, shortly after she had made her complaint to gardaí. Phelan said Walsh had told her she was going to court and had asked her for her help. Phelan later testified in the 1999 trial that she had been in the room and had seen Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe taking part in the rape of Regina Walsh.
“At the time I gave this evidence in court, I knew it was wrong and against the law, but I just wanted to get back at Dominic (Nora Wall),” she said.
“The reason I wanted to get back at Dominic is that she used to beat me when I was living in the group houses. She gave me a terrible life and I hated her.”
The Director of Public Prosecution has conceded that Phelan was wrongly called as a witness in the original trial to corroborate Walsh’s account of the alleged rape and is not opposing the application for a certificate declaring a miscarriage of justice.
The presiding judge at the Court of Criminal Appeal, Nichola Kearns, said the court did not want the granting of a certificate to be a rubber-stamping exercise and the full outline of the facts in the case should be heard.
The former mercy nun was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime, while Mr McCabe – who has since died – received 12 years. Both convictions were quashed days after they were found guilty and their names were cleared when the DPP announced he would not be seeking a re-trial in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Ms Walsh was accompanied in court by her brother Jim and other members of her family. She looked visibly upset while some of the evidence from Phelan’s original false statement was read out.
Phelan herself was also in court, as was the nun she confessed to, Sister Mona Killeen.
