The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision to grant injunctions allowing two Leaving Certificate students, who were expelled for videoing and posting on social media a classmate snorting some white powder during a class, to return to school.

Last year the students, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, secured injunctions against the school’s board of management allowing the students attend class and continue their education for the academic year pending the full and final determination of their proceedings.

The injunctions, granted by Mr Justice Max Barrett, were sought as part of their High Court actions aimed at ….read more

A Meath man jailed for raping a woman he met on the online dating app ‘Badoo’ has lost an appeal against his conviction.

Martin Sherlock (31) and the woman, a foreign national, had arranged to meet but she told him they could not have sex without a condom. She started to feel uncomfortable during other sexual activity and said Sherlock did not stop when she said “no”. Later, she realised he had ejaculated inside her.

Sherlock, of Athlumney Wood, Navan, Co Meath had pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at her Dublin home on August 14, 2015. He pleaded guilty ….read more

A man jailed for sexually assaulting a woman he met on the internet dating programme Tinder has lost an appeal against his conviction.

Paul Flaherty (31) was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of sexually assaulting a woman at his home on Kiltipper Avenue, in Tallaght, Dublin on August 31, 2015. The incident took place while Flaherty’s parents were in the next-door bedroom.

Sentencing him to five years imprisonment last year, Mr Justice Michael White said Flaherty’s behaviour on the night was “disgusting”. He noted that the woman had made it clear to Flaherty that she was ….read more

A man found floating in the ocean next to 65 bales of cocaine has had his 30-year prison sentence for one of the State’s largest ever drugs hauls cut to 23 years by the Court of Appeal.

UK man Martin Wanden (58), with a last address in South Africa, had pleaded not guilty to his role in the €440 million drugs haul which went awry at Dunlough Bay on the Mizen Peninsula, West Cork on July 2 2007.

The case began when a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) carrying 1.5 tonnes of cocaine got into difficulties. The cocaine had been transferred to ….read more

A man found guilty of being involved in the “horrendous” aggravated burglary and robbery of an 81-year old farmer in north Co Dublin must wait to hear the outcome of an appeal against his conviction.

Adam Marlowe (25) was convicted by a jury after his DNA profile was found on blue latex material found in the home of the elderly farmer, who was beaten in his bedroom by three people wearing balaclavas. The material was described as the fingertip of a latex glove.

Marlowe, of Walkinstown Drive, Walkinstown, Dublin had pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary, robbery of €50 and assaulting ….read more

A Brazilian butcher has lost an appeal against the severity of his eight-year prison sentence for killing a Waterford man who had assaulted and racially abused him earlier that evening.

Juraci Da Silva (36), with an address at Park Lane Apartments in Waterford, had admitted killing James ‘Jay’ Banville at New Street in the city in the early hours of October 8, 2016, but denied it was murder.

The Central Criminal Court heard that Da Silva had been assaulted twice earlier that evening by the deceased and his friend. The first assault was accompanied by racial comments and the second ….read more

A man jailed for raping his wife, after she asked a judge not to send him to jail, must wait to hear whether his sentence will be increased on foot of an appeal by prosecutors.

The 38-year-old man, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim’s identity, was found guilty following a trial at the Central Criminal Court of raping and sexually assaulting his wife at their home in Dublin on August 30, 2015. He had denied the charges but accepted the jury’s verdict and apologised to his wife in court.

In a victim impact statement, the man’s wife said ….read more

The Court of Appeal has struck out appeals against damages awards made to dozens of Portuguese workers who claimed they lived in terrible conditions when they were building a section of the N7 motorway in 2007 and 2008.

Last year the High Court awarded the workers damages of over €1m for breach of contract against Portuguese companies Rosas Construtores SA, Constructocoes Gabriel AS Couto SA, and Empresa Deconstrucoes Amandio Carvalho SA.

The companies all trade under the title RAC Contractors or RAC Eire Partnership.

The workers claimed they were underpaid and lived in conditions described as a “work camp” while working for ….read more

A man jailed for raping his wife twice in one night has lost an appeal against his conviction.

The 40-year-old man, whose details cannot be published to protect his wife’s identity, was convicted following a Central Criminal Court trial on two counts of anally raping the woman at their Co Mayo home on December 18, 2015.

The man was found not guilty by the jury on four other counts of rape on earlier dates in 2015 and there was a direction of not guilty by the trial judge on a further count. He had no previous convictions.

The woman gave evidence ….read more

A man described by a judge as “a danger to society” has lost an appeal against his conviction for drugging his heavily-pregnant partner and filming himself sexually assaulting her.

The Dublin man (55), who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury on three counts of sexually assaulting his partner by touching her anal area on three occasions in November 2014.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two further allegations that he raped his partner in December 2014, days before she was due to give birth to their second child, but he ….read more