Rapist denied leave to appeal sentence
The Court of Criminal Appeal has refused a north Dublin businessman leave to appeal against his 10-year sentence for raping a foreign tourist in a Killarney hotel over five years ago.
The three-judge court today rejected an assertion from lawyers for Philip McGrane (aged 42) that the judge at the original trial had placed the jury under undue pressure to reach a verdict.
McGrane, with a last address at Moonlone Lane, Hynestown, The Naul, had pleaded not guilty to the oral and anal rape, rape and sexual assault of the victim on June 6, 2005.
It took a Central Criminal Court jury just more than four hours to find him guilty on all counts on the 11th day of his trial on March 6, 2007.
Counsel for McGrane, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, told the court that Mr Justice Paul Carney had erred when responding to a question from the jury foreman as to whether the jury should pack an overnight bag for the first day’s deliberations at the original trial.
Mr Hartnett said that Mr Justice Carney had put significant pressure on the jury when he responded: “No, I think I have to be in Galway on Tuesday, and you will have to deliver it no matter how long it takes.”
Mr Justice Carney then went on to tell the jury that if they had to be “bussed down to Galway” then “so be it” and they must “stick at it for as long as possible”.
Mr Hartnett said the court had to ask whether this was an appropriate thing to say to a jury and whether there was a risk of unwarranted pressure on them to reach a verdict.
Counsel for the State, Mr Paul Burns SC, who also represented the DPP at the original trial, told the court that he could not recall any member of the jury or the defence at the trial having concerns as to whether the jury were being put under pressure.
Mr Burns said that, as a member of the prosecution, if he believed so he would have undoubtedly raised the issue with the trial judge at the time.
He said that the fact that the jury returned the verdicts at different stages indicated they were not reacting to any outside pressure, as otherwise they would likely return identical verdicts on all charges at the same time.
In rejecting the appeal application, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, presiding, said that Mr Carney’s remarks were made on a Friday evening, and when the jury returned the following Monday to resume the trial they expressed no concerns over untoward pressure.
Mr Justice McKechnie said that the fact that the jury returned a verdict on the rape charges of their own volition midway through a smoking break, before returning a verdict later on the sexual assault charges, also indicated they were not reacting to any outside pressure.
He said that the court rejected the request for leave to appeal as it could find no evidence of the jury having been rushed.
