Mr DS

Mr DS was convicted in March 2009 of rape and received a sentence of six years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in October 2010.

This was a case revolving around the issue of consent. There was no dispute at trial that Mr DS and the complainant had had sexual intercourse, but the complainant denied that it had been with her consent.

Having reviewed the case, the CCRC decided to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal because it considered that several issues raised a real possibility that the court would quash the conviction.

Those issues included: the non-disclosure of a key witness statement, the admissibility at trial of “recent complaint” evidence, and potential inadequacies in the judge’s direction to the jury regarding that recent complaint evidence.

Recent complaint evidence is evidence from a witness about an account given by a complainant (usually in a rape or other sexual offences cases) to that witness before a complaint is made to the police.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2012.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in June 2012.