WC, R v

[1] This is an appeal brought by the appellant against his conviction on 3�December 2015 by a unanimous jury verdict, at Londonderry Crown Court, on six counts of indecent assault, three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity involving penetration, one count of sexual assault by penetration, one count of rape and one count of common assault.

[2] The appellant lodged a Notice of Appeal against conviction on 7 December 2015. Leave to appeal conviction was granted by the Single Judge Keegan J on 7�June 2016, on the first ground of appeal only.

[3] The complainant is the appellant�'s daughter. Given the familial relationship between the appellant and the complainant, no details pertaining to the identification of the appellant or the complainant should be revealed in any publication of any sort or released to the media, so as to preserve the complainant�'s anonymity.

[4] Mr Ciaran Mallon QC with Mr Eoghan Devlin appeared for the appellant. Ms�Jackie Orr QC appeared with Mr Gary McCrudden for the Crown. The court is grateful to counsel for their submissions.

[5] The complainant was born on 28 February 2002. Her parents separated in 2005 and she moved with her mother to Donegal. Following a period of no contact the complainant had supervised contact with the appellant at her mother�'s home. This progressed to overnight contact at the paternal grandmother�'s home where the appellant resided.