Wed, 16 Sep 2020
The Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands has allowed the appeal against conviction for indecent assault by a man who had been sentenced to 3 years and 3 months for an allegedly indecent assault involving touching of a woman's breasts.
Mr Rule assisted in the preparation of appeal grounds submitted by James Stenning of Stenning's Chambers. The strength of the written grounds was such that the prosecutor Mr Walcolm, in the best traditions of the ministration of justice, conceded the appeal and recognised the unsafety of the conviction. The Hon. Sir Richard Field JA delivered the judgment of the Court on 4 September 2020 (Dodge v R, Appeal No. 11 of 2019).
It had been agreed evidence that she had initially thought he was someone else, to whom she would consent to the touching, and when she realised it was not that man and objected the appellant had desisted. However the Court of Appeal agreed that the trial Judge misdirected the jury as to the honest belief of the appellant at the time of the touching, and had wrongly confused the jury by introducing an issue of recklessness and by confusing the proper burden of proof.
Mr Rule has previously presented two appeals to the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands, and submitted written grounds in a third. Each of those appeals was also allowed. The two conviction appeals established important points of law and practice and have been reported in the law reports at [2018 (2) CILR 278] Jefferson v R; and [2018 (2) CILR 308] Oliver v. R.
https://www.no5.com/media/news/cayman-islands-court-of-appeal-successes-for-philip-rule/
