Man fails to overturn marital rape conviction

A MAN who was jailed for beating and raping his wife has lost an appeal against his conviction which centred on the question of consent.

The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded not guilty to raping the woman but admitted assaulting her by punching her in the face on the same occasion on January 8, 2015

He was unanimously found guilty of rape by a Central Criminal Court jury and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with two suspended by Mr Justice Paul Butler on December 20, 2016. The man’s conviction for marital rape was the fourth recorded in the State since it was criminalised in 1990. The prosecution’s claimed the woman was afraid for her life and felt ‘sex was the only way out’. The Court of Appeal heard that it was an ‘unusual’ and ‘nuanced’ case.

Dismissing the man’s appeal against conviction yesterday, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the couple married in 1994 and had a number of children. They had experienced difficulties in their marriage for some time and had attended marriage counselling. The woman saw her husband as ‘controlling’.

The man moved to appeal his conviction on grounds that the trial judge erred in directing the jury on the concept of recklessness having regard to the particular facts of the case, erred in misdirecting the jury on the issue of resistance (section 9 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990,) and in doing so, undermined the defence’s case.

The judge dismissed these grounds.