Rugby rape trial: two accused of revealing woman's identity

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/30/rugby-trial-two-accused-revealing-womans-identity-irish-players

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Files on two individuals accused of revealing the identity of the woman at the centre of a high-profile trial in which two Irish rugby internationals were cleared of rape have been sent to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

Northern Ireland’s attorney general will also consider an allegation that one of the jurors made comments about the case on a website after the verdicts had been delivered.

The PPS in Northern Ireland confirmed police had passed on the files of two people questioned by detectives this week after the end of the case at Belfast’s Laganside courts on Wednesday.

The two individuals were arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) after complaints that they allegedly named the 21-year-old woman on social media.

The jury in the nine-week trial unanimously found the Ireland rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding not guilty of raping the woman in June 2016.

They also found their friend Blane McIlroy not guilty of one count of indecent exposure. Another defendant, Rory Harrison, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

The PSNI said on Friday there was still an ongoing police investigation into an offence under section five of the Sexual Offences Act 1992. It is illegal to disclose the identity of complainants in rape and sexual offences cases.

A spokesperson for the PPS said it now had the PSNI files on the police investigation into the use of social media to identify the woman during the court proceedings.

In a separate development, the lord chief justice’s office in Northern Ireland said it had referred the case on of a juror who allegedly commented on the case after the verdict.

A spokesperson for the lord chief justice said the matter had been placed in the hands of the region’s attorney general, John Larkin QC, for consideration.

The juror is said to have made their initial comments in the aftermath of the case on the Irish media website Broadsheet.ie and then defended their actions later on the website of the Irish Times. The attorney general’s office in Belfast said the matter was under consideration. They added: “The attorney general now has to decide if the juror was in contempt of court by posting online.”

Meanwhile, lawyers for Jackson, the fly-half for Ireland and Ulster, confirmed on Friday they were suing an Irish politician over alleged remarks in relation to the case.

Marie Hans, a senior associate at KRW Law solicitors, said: “I can confirm we have issued pre-action libel correspondence against a named senator in the Republic of Ireland. The legal action relates to a tweet sent to a number of other persons before it was eventually taken down.

“We will not hesitate to repeat similar legal action against anyone, who deliberately or otherwise, sees fit to attack our client. We are examining carefully every item of social media commentary which seeks to challenge the integrity of the jury’s full endorsement of our client’s innocence. High court proceedings will issue shortly in both Belfast and Dublin.”

A legal application will be made next Wednesday for a number of media organisations in Northern Ireland to challenge several areas of reporting restrictions imposed by the trial judge, Justice Patricia Smyth, during the case.

Smyth will then hear the full legal challenge to the continuing reporting restrictions on 9 April.

A legal expert on privacy and libel, whose clients have included Hollywood actors, has said the issue of both a juror commenting post-trial and the identification of a complainant during the case will have major implications for the law and social media.

Paul Tweed, who has already sued the likes of Twitter and Facebook for privacy breaches and defamation on behalf of both movie stars and members of the public, said: “This will be extremely important for the effectiveness of the legal process in upholding the law especially in the era of social network giants, who should share some responsibility, with particular reference to their response time.”