BishopAccountability.org
	Donegal Priest Mounts Appeal against Rape Conviction Belfast Telegraph March 13, 2008 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/article3512091.ece Lawyers for a Donegal priest who is serving a seven-year jail term for raping a teenage girl in a church sacristy are challenging his conviction and sentence on the grounds that a number of statements read out to the jury should not have been admitted in the trial. Forty-nine-year-old Daniel Doherty, of Derriscleigh, Carrigart, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury in May 2006 on two charges each of raping and indecently assaulting the girl on dates in 1984 and 1985. The statements counsel for Doherty, Alex Owens, is referring to were those of witnesses two and three in the trial who were unavailable as they were in the US at the time. Mr Owens said it was clear counsel for the defence and the prosecution were treating the statements as evidence as if the witnesses had been called in the case. Mr Owens, who did not represent Mr Doherty during the trial, contends that the statements should not have been admitted as they were not in compliance with a section under the Criminal Justice Act. He said the court didn't have to decide who to blame, but nobody spotted the problem and the statements shouldn't have been admitted. Mr Owens said everything in the case dictated that they should have been kept out. Daniel Doherty is challenging his conviction and seven-year sentence for raping the 13-year-old over 20 years ago.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.