A man who raped his wife in the spare room of their Dublin home after she told him she wanted a separation has lost an appeal against his conviction.
The man, who can’t be named so as to protect his wife’s identity, claimed he was denied a fair trial.
In June last year, the man was found guilty of threatening to cut his wife’s face before raping her at their home in Dublin in May 2014.
The couple’s son was asleep in another room at the time of the incident, and she said it happened because he refused to accept their marriage was over.
He is currently serving a 10 year sentence.
One of his main grounds of appeal was his contention that the judge failed to adequately warn potential jurors about his race and religious beliefs.
He referred to a report which found that Islam-o-phobia exists in Ireland – in ruling against him on that point, the appeals court said a special warning about him being a Muslim would be considered insulting by an Irish jury and entirely counter-productive.
Three other points relating to the severing of the indictment, bad character evidence and the prosecution’s decision not to call a particular witness were also dismissed this morning.
