Judgment
Lord Justice Elias :
The appellant was convicted unanimously at the Crown Court at Bolton before HH Judge Davies of ten counts of indecent assault (counts 1-5, 7, 9, 11,13 and 15) and four counts of indecency with a child (counts 10, 12, 14 and 16). These were all specimen counts reflecting, it was alleged, regular offending. Counts 1 to 8 involved offences occurring at the family house in Elizabeth Street and counts 9-16 in a different house in Elmwood Grove after the family had moved.
On 26th April 2013 he was sentenced by the judge to 6 years on all the indecent assaults concurrent with each other, save for count 9 where the sentence was 6 years consecutive; and 6 years concurrent on each of the indecency with a child counts. The total sentence was therefore 12 years. A sexual offences prevention order was also imposed.
He was acquitted by the jury on the judge’s direction of counts 6 and 8 (indecency with a child) and 17 (indecent assault).
He appeals against conviction by leave of the single judge who gave permission for the appeal to go forward on two grounds. The first was that the judge’s summing up on the burden and standard of proof was defective. The second was that this was an exceptional case where the court should have a lurking doubt about the safety of the conviction. In fact at the hearing itself the emphasis of the appeal shifted. Ms Gerry QC, who was counsel for the appellant before us but was not trial counsel, submitted essentially that there were a number of failings in the summing up whose cumulative effect was that it was not a fair or balanced summing up and failed to ensure that the defendant’s case was fully and fairly placed before the jury. She did also contend that the judge was wrong not to stop the case at half time (notwithstanding that he had not been asked to do so) and she advanced the lurking doubt argument. These last two points were not pressed with much conviction and it is sufficient to say that we think there is no merit in either argument.
The appeal was previously listed on 10 th April 2014 before the full court (Sharp LJ presiding). The full court gave directions for transcripts of all the evidence given at trial to be provided together with closing speeches.
The facts
On 9 th September 2011 the complainant, GS, made a complaint to police alleging historic sexual abuse by the appellant. The abuse was said to have occurred within the confines of a step-family environment. She said that the abuse
