Court Could Add to Sentences

The Judge of Appeal has warned two men seeking to appeal against their rape convictions that the court could add time on to their sentences.

Justice Anthony Cross issued the warning to James Marcus Doherty and Graham Skillicorn at a hearing in Douglas Courthouse this morning.

The two men, who along with Steven Cannon were convicted at trial of the rape of a teenage woman, are seeking to appeal both their convictions and sentences.

Justice Cross warned the men and their advocates that they are not automatically entitled to an appeal and he and a panel will decide if their appeals can go forward.

He said: “I want you two men to understand that it is necessary for this court, either by me alone or with other judges, to give you permission to appeal.”

He also warned that them that if he and his fellow judges were to rule that they had no grounds for appeal and had launched them “just because you want to”, he could direct that the time they have currently served be lost.

This means that the court, if it so deemed necessary, could implement a loss of time order which dictates that some of the time that the applicants have spent in custody awaiting appeal will not count towards their sentence, effectively putting back the release date.

Grounds

Both men, now represented by different advocates to those who represented them at trial, Doherty by Paul Rodgers and Skillicorn by Paul Glover, have submitted some different arguments for their appeals.

Justice Cross ordered their advocates to provide a consolidated submission that outlines the similar and different grounds they seek to argue.

One such argument, put forward by Mr Rodgers, will be that the trial judge, Deemster Graeme CooK, gave an “unbalanced” review in his summing up for the jury.

While not addressing that point, Justice Cross later said was “surprised” by some of the claims made in the documents submitted to the court.

He also again warned that it has not yet been decided if the appeals will be allowed to proceed saying he does not want to do that until he sees “proper grounds”.

That is likely to be determined in the spring.

Refused

The court also heard that Doherty has refused to sign the sex offenders register.

He said was refusing to do so because he maintains his innocence, telling the court “I am not guilty”.

However, Justice Cross told him “you are going to have to sign it”, adding that he was convicted and that he will “stay guilty” unless and until the courts rule otherwise.

The next hearing is due to take place on a date to be determined in April.