Rapist who encouraged dog to abuse his daughter loses appeal
A rapist father who encouraged the family dog to take part in the sexual abuse of his daughters has lost his appeal against conviction.
Responding to his barrister’s argument that the prosecution should have ‘set out its stall’ on certain issues at the start of the case, the Court of Appeal noted that ‘an accused person is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial’.
In July 2018, Patrick Byrnes, 80, with a last address at Castletroy, Limerick, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of 58 charges of indecent assault and two counts of rape on dates between 1975 and 1985.
One of his daughters blamed the abuse for her broken marriage and said she could not bear to be near the family dog after him “willing” the animal to engage in sexual acts with her.
Byrnes began abusing his daughters when they were aged around seven, the year of their First Communion. The court heard that he told the two children that he and their mother would split up if they told anyone about it. They said they lived in "abject fear" of him and have been left broken by the decade of abuse.
The father-of-nine, a retired taxi driver, had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and continues to deny them. He was sentenced to eight years with two years suspended by Justice Paul McDermott in October 2018.
Byrnes appealed his conviction on the basis of how the trial judge dealt with alleged fabrication and collusion by the two complainants in his instructions to the jury.
His barrister, Roisin Lacey, also submitted that the verdict was perverse and against the weight of evidence.
Court President Justice George Birmingham, presiding with Justice Isobel Kennedy and Justice ÚnaNí Raifeartaigh, said they weren’t persuaded by the grounds of appeal.
The court agreed that it would have been desirable if the prosecution had ‘set out its stall at the start of the case and explained why they were proceeding with counts involving two complainants, and how, in their view, the jury should deal with that situation’.
“Such, however, is a counsel of perfection. As has often been said, an accused person is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial,” they said, dismissing the appeal."
