A pensioner convicted of historic sex offences against two children has failed in his bid to have the Court of Appeal order a probe into alleged "perjury" in his case. Robert Edward O'Brien, formerly of Foxfold in Skelmersdale, was sentenced in November 2018, aged 69, to 18 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of six counts of rape and nine counts of indecent assault.
Appeal bid over perjury claims
O'Brien's victims were subjected to a campaign of sexual abuse which lasted for a number of years in the 1980s. Nearly eight years after his sentence, O'Brien appeared before the Court of Appeal where he asked the judges to direct his case to the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) - the miscarriage of justice watchdog.
Representing himself in court earlier this month, O'Brien asked for the CCRC to "impose a requirement on a chief officer of the police to investigate an offence of perjury". The presiding appeal judges, Lady Justice Whipple, Mrs Justice McGowan and Mrs Justice Eady, said: "In his application, he has set out at some length the steps he has taken to encourage the police to investigate what he alleges to have been a perjury in his case, his approaches to the CCRC and an apparent application for judicial review to get a crime number for the report he made."
Application described as 'repetitive'
O'Brien's application was described as "repetitive...discussive [and] at times difficult to follow". Across 26 different grounds of appeal, he made various claims including one of his victims "admitted consent"; that the prosecution "mislead" the court; there had been failures in disclosure, in particular relating to medical evidence; and the "impossibility" of certain allegations.
The court heard that O'Brien first applied to appeal against his conviction in July 2024 - over 2,000 days after his conviction. He told the judges that it had taken all that time for the perjury to be officially recorded as a crime. He added he should be afforded different treatment in the appeal process because he was representing himself.
Judges refuse application
The judges said: "The fact the applicant acts in person does not provide a good reason for the extraordinary delay and the failure to lodge the application for leave to appeal in time is not explained by the attempts to pursue allegations of perjury with other agencies."
The judges refused O'Brien's application because of the length of time it had taken to make, adding he had "failed to provide any sensible explanation for why he has made this application so late". They added: "Notwithstanding the difficulties in addressing the applicant's proposed appeal, we have paid careful regard to the documentation that has been provided. We are, however, satisfied that there is no basis for granting the lengthy extension of time necessary for this appeal and that the application is properly to be described as wholly without merit."
One of the victims first made allegations in June 2016. The second was approached by the lead officer in the case as a potential witness before she too disclosed she had been subjected to abuse at the hands of O'Brien. The prosecution relied on disclosures made by the first victim to relatives before she reported the assaults to the police. Meanwhile O'Brien denied all the allegations, saying the two victims had "imagined and/or fabricated" them.
The judges found O'Brien had "made various allegations of police impropriety, but, as the single judge observed, these have no sustainable evidence base". They said: "Ultimately the issue for the jury at trial was whether or not the two complainants had been sexually assaulted by the applicant as they alleged. The jury clearly accepted the evidence of [the two victims] and rejected that of the applicant; most of the points raised by the grounds of appeal were matters for the jury to decide."
The judges also made a loss of time direction of 28 days, meaning four weeks of O'Brien's served time in prison has become void. Following O'Brien's initial sentencing, a spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary said: "O'Brien's abuse has had a devastating impact on the lives of these two women which he compounded by denying the offences for which he has been convicted."
