Kildare man jailed for sexual assaults of children commences appeal

A 41-year-old Kildare man jailed for historic sexual assaults on three girls has argued before the Court of Appeal that all the charges against him should not have been dealt with in the same trial.

Lawyers for Andrew Leigh (41) argued that two charges against him were only connected by the fact that they both occurred in a car, as one incident involved him touching a girl on the genital area, while the other involved him touching himself and putting his fingers into a girl’s mouth.

Mr Leigh, of Killelan Cross, Moone, Athy, Co Kildare, pleaded not guilty to sexual assaults that occurred on dates between March 1996 and June 2005 but was convicted on a number of counts by a jury at the Central Criminal Court on 18 December 2023. He was sentenced to four years in prison by Mr Justice David Keane.

At the Court of Appeal on Monday, counsel for Mr Leigh, Michael Bowman SC said there were three complainants in this case and submitted that the trial judge erred in law by failing to sever the indictment in relation to two counts against the appellant.

Mr Bowman said that among the charges against the appellant was an incident in which an injured party was aged 12 when the appellant started giving her drink, before he lay on top of her and tried to get her trousers down. Another count related to an incident on the appellant’s 21st birthday, in which the complainant’s father picked them up.

On this occasion, Mr Leigh was running his hands across the girl’s knees and may have touched her genitals, before he was kicked out of the car.

Another count related to an incident at a junior hunt ball, when the appellant kissed an injured party and tried to pull down the straps of her dress before he groped her breasts.

A further count related to an incident in which an injured party got into the front of a car, while Mr Leigh got into the back. The injured party said he tapped her with his right hand, so she turned to see him pushing his groin forward with his left hand down his trousers, before he reached forward with his left hand and put one of his fingers into her mouth.

Mr Bowman said that an application was made to sever the final two counts on the indictment, even though the prosecution had advanced a case of similarity. He said it was difficult to identify features of a similar nature within these two counts and the other counts on the indictment.

He said that the Director of Public Prosecutions had found that there were similarities, so the trial judge ruled they should stay together on the indictment. Mr Bowman said that there were two incidents where the only thing that connected them was that they both took place in a car.

“In one is the touching of the genital area, and the other is touching himself and putting fingers into her mouth, they do not bear the same similarity,” he said.

Mr Justice John Edwards said the trial judge needed to find there was some similarity, but that did not need to be "a striking similarity". To this, Mr Bowman said that “the differences were more apparent than the similarities”.

Moving on to the second ground of appeal, Mr Bowman said the prosecution had contended that there was sufficient evidence that Mr Leigh knew what he was doing was “gravely wrong”, but counsel asked where this evidence was to be found.

He said there was no suggestion that the appellant contrived to create the environment that facilitated the offending, nor had he isolated the girls.

On behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Patrick Gageby SC said that these were all sexual assaults on young women of a similar nature. He said they were all instances of unwanted, unconsented sexual touching, with some involving the appellant putting his hand under a blanket to touch girls aged between 7 and 9 on the vagina.

“There was ample evidence that the accused knew this was something he ought not to do, the touching of two little girls’ vaginas,” said Mr Gageby.

Mr Justice Edwards said the court would reserve judgement in the case.