IB [2019] EWCA Crim 1547

The applicant was convicted of four counts of indecent assault, acquitted of six, and sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment. He sought permission to appeal against conviction.

The first ground of appeal was that the convictions were inconsistent with the acquittals on other counts. The second ground concerned evidence disclosed to the defence following conviction that the complainant had recently been involved in a fraud.

Held: the Court was unsatisfied that the verdicts were not ones which no reasonable jury could have returned, the evidence as a whole provided a logical rationale for them. The Court considered the fresh evidence de bene esse; it was clear the credibility of the complainant was in issue. She had made complaints in 2003, and 2005 about matters said to occur when she was aged 10 to 13, although they were not proceeded with at that time.

Given both the substantial remove in time and the entirely different subject matter of the trial and the fraud, it was not considered that the evidence would have been of substantial probative value.

The renewed application was refused.