Child Sexual Abuse

The Supreme Court has upheld a finding that the burden of proof for the "reasonable mistake" defence in child sexual offence cases is incompatible with the Constitution. The court yesterday ruled unanimously that section 3(5) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006, which provides that the "r

The Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction of an alleged child sexual abuser on the grounds that the trial judge did not correctly charge the jury in respect of the doctrine of recent complaint evidence. The accused’s counsel has not raised a requisition at the time or in the original noti

Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal has dismissed all grounds of appeal brought by a 62-year-old veteran involved in making and distributing indecent images of children. The man had been sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment in relation to 37 criminal counts following an investigation involving over 1

The Court of Appeal has quashed a conviction for sexual assault against a six-year-old child on the basis that the child could not remember the circumstances of the alleged assault. The child’s evidence of the allegations was crucial since there was no other corroborating evidence in the case.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a 10-year sentence imposed on a man who entered into a coercive sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. The girl had a child with the man during the abuse. The accused had pleaded guilty to one count of the defilement of a child and one count of sexual assault. De

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has upheld a decision permitting evidence of sexual assault in the context of a family court application where the same evidence was rejected as hearsay in a criminal trial. The facts of this case are explicit and reader discretion is advised.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against conviction brought by a man who sexually abused his niece between 1981 and 1989. The main point of appeal related to the unavailability of certain documentary evidence of counselling records for the complainant. Delivering judgment in the case, Mr

An Garda Síochána is retaining the personal data of innocent people who have been cleared as suspected producers or sharers of online child sex abuse material without any legal basis, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has claimed. The civil liberties group has published corr

The High Court has ruled that the provisions of the Children First Act 2015 require HSE counsellors to report child abuse claims made by adult service users to Tusla. A 2019 policy published by the HSE required certain “mandated persons” to pass on information to Tusla where there were r

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has been granted leave from the High Court to exercise its amicus curiae function in a significant case focused on redress for survivors of historic child sexual abuse in schools. As amicus curiae in the case of PD v. The Minister for Education, the wat

The High Court has approved a settlement of €350,000 for a man who claimed to have been sexually abused while attending a secondary school operated by a religious order. It was held that the settlement was "excellent" in circumstances where the plaintiff faced substantial difficulties proving h

The High Court has ruled that a key provision of legislation related to prosecutions of child sexual assault cases is invalid under the Constitution. The plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of section 3 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006, which provided that the “reasonable

Ireland is set to ratify the Lanzarote Convention on protecting children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has announced. Earlier this year, Ireland became the only Council of Europe member state that had not ratified the Lanzarote Convention, which Ireland si

The High Court has quashed a decision by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency (CFA), reaching a “provisional conclusion” that a man had engaged in sexual acts with a child in its review of historic sex abuse allegations. Mr Justice Garrett Simons said that the case illustrated “the v

Child sexual exploitation laws in Northern Ireland are set to be strengthened following the completion of a recent review, Justice Minister Naomi Long has said. New legislation expected early next year will remove outdated terms such as "child prostitution" from existing legislation, ban adults from