Galway Bay fm newsroom:
A former Galway hotel owner jailed for raping an employee following a staff party must wait to hear the outcome of an appeal against his conviction.
53 year old Brian Shaughnessy raped the young woman in the Presidential Suite of the Loughrea Hotel and Spa after buying her drinks and asking if he could confide in her. He was the owner of the hotel at the time.
Brian Shaughnessy, with an address at Ballywinna, Craughwell, had pleaded NOT guilty to raping the girl at the Lough Rea Hotel and Spa on July 26, 2010, but was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury following a trial.
He was sentenced to six years in prison, with the final year suspended by Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan on June 10, 2013.
Today (Thurs) Shaughnessy moved to appeal his conviction on grounds related to his dissatisfaction with his previous legal team.
His barrister, Hugh Hartnett further submitted that the trial judge erred in telling the jury that the evidence of the victim’s demeanour as she left the hotel was capable of amounting to corroboration of the offence.
Counsel for Shaughnessy’s previous legal team, Seán Gillane said there had been an extraordinarily delay in bringing the appeal to court, and it was unexplained why it took six years for the complaint about Shaughnessy’s previous legal team to crystallise.
Mr Gillane said it was a rape case in which Shaughnessy claimed no sexual intercourse had taken place.
He said Shaughnessy did not give evidence and had told gardaí that his interaction with the victim was short and not of any significance.
Mr Gillane said his previous lawyers were aware of that and judgment calls were made that ought not to be parsed and analysed six years later.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions said Shaughnessy tells of how troubled he was during the trial, but didn’t say anything to his legal team at the time.
He said Brian Shaughnessy’s previous lawyers had swore an affidavit that their client’s instructions were followed at all stages. He said any complaint in relation to corroboration was “not made out”.
Ms Justice Máire Whelan, who sat with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, said the court would reserve its judgment.
