A professional masseur accused of sexually assaulting a woman while massaging her has obtained a court order stopping his trial unless certain information is provided to him by the woman.
The man, who denies the charge, sought to stop his trial after the woman revealed she had previously alleged rape and sexual assault as a child but had not made formal complaints to gardaí about those previous alleged offences.
He asked the High Court to order the woman to provide the identities of the alleged perpetrators of those alleged crimes so his lawyers could cross-examine her about them at his trial. This was critical to the woman's credibility, it was argued.
The High Court rejected his application saying he had not discharged the onus of establishing, unless he got the material, there was a real risk of an unfair trial.
There was ample material available to the man’s lawyers to conduct a meaningful cross-examination of the woman, that court said.
In a judgment on behalf of a three-judge Court of Appeal overturning that decision, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan ordered the prosecution of the man be stayed unless the complainant discloses the identities of the two alleged perpetrators during her childhood.
If those identifies are disclosed within three months of his judgment, the stay will be lifted and the trial can proceed, the judge said.
If not, the stay will become permanent, he said.
Earlier, the judge said, if the man’s case was to be believed, he was facing a false allegation which had the potential to ruin his life. “Few things in life are more unpleasant than having to face the false allegation”, he said.
The Supreme Court had repeatedly stressed the critical importance of the right to cross-examine a witness and "essentially no greater truth-eliciting process has ever been devised", the judge added.
