- 33-year-old jailed in June for abusing a young girl while he was a teenager
- Robert Norman was sentenced to four and a half years
- Now his attempt to have 13 convictions has been overturned
A CONVICTED sex offender who subjected his victim to ‘appalling’ regular sexual abuse has had his appeal to overturn his guilty verdicts thrown out.
Robert Douglas Norman, who is now in his 30s, did not react as the Court of Appeal announced its verdict yesterday afternoon.
Advocate Sarah Fitz, who was representing Norman, had moved for all 13 counts against her client to be overturned.
In June, following an Assize trial at the Royal Court, Norman was jailed for 4½ years and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for six years after he was found guilty of 13 offences against a girl who in her adult life has suffered periods of depression and post-traumatic stress related to the attacks.
The charges included nine counts of indecent assault, two counts of procuring an act of gross indecency and two other serious sexual offences.
It was Advocate Fitz’s submission that the verdicts reached and the evidence provided may have been ‘inconsistent’.
She argued that because the jury found Norman not guilty on some counts during his trial there should be reason to doubt the other verdicts.
Advocate Fitz also added that Norman’s case might have been prejudiced by the fact that reference was made to a previous trial in which he was acquitted of all allegations.
However, Advocate Sara O’Donnel, who was representing the Crown, argued that the jury were never in any doubt as to the reliability of the victim’s evidence.
The court took just over two hours to make their decision. Clare Montgomery QC, who was sitting alongside David Anderson QC and John Martin, president of the Court of Appeal, said: ‘We see the case for the applicant to be unreasonable and therefore we reject the application.’
