A repeat sex offender who was jailed for luring a young woman into his room and forcing himself on her just weeks after arriving in Ireland has claimed his trial was unfair after he was made withdraw false claims of previous good character or risk having his convictions for rape, kidnap and false imprisonment disclosed to the jury, reports The Mirror.
Barristers representing Randi Gladstone (42), formerly of Guyana, argued that withdrawing his earlier evidence of good character effectively led the jury to conclude he was of bad character, while counsel for the State said Gladstone had “dropped his protection or shield” by presenting himself as a man of good character despite having spent significant time in custody for serious offences, reports The Mirror.
Gladstone was convicted in January last year of rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment at a holiday complex in Co Dublin on August 25, 2023. He had previously been deported and barred from entering the UK, reports The Mirror.
Although he pleaded not guilty and claimed the encounter was consensual, the jury rejected his account and Mr Justice Patrick McGrath sentenced him to ten years in prison.
The court heard that Gladstone enticed the young woman into his room, where he raped and falsely imprisoned her. Jurors were told she did not physically resist due to fear, and after the assault he told her “to come back later for more”. Gladstone has 19 prior convictions, including rape, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment, reports The Mirror.
Last June, he received an additional six-month sentence for failing to notify gardaí within seven days of arriving in Ireland that he was a registered sex offender, as required by law. The court was told he travelled from Suriname to Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands before arriving in Ireland on August 11, 2023, and two weeks later raped the 18-year-old woman in shared accommodation.
At the Court of Appeal on Monday, his legal team, led by Dominic McGinn SC, advanced three grounds of appeal, the first relating to the trial judge’s clarification to the jury of the meaning of false imprisonment, reports The Mirror.
Mr McGinn argued that any judicial direction must be balanced and not one-sided. He said this standard was not met when the judge clarified false imprisonment in response to a jury query, correctly outlining the legal definition but then briefly summarising the prosecution’s case that the complainant was trapped in the room.
He noted that a central part of the defence case was that the door could not be locked from the inside and could simply be opened by pushing the handle down, reports The Mirror.
“If the court had simply cited the law and not commented on the facts, there would not be an argument, but the judge went on to lay out the prosecution case,” said Mr McGinn, adding that the judge should also have highlighted that this evidence was disputed, reports The Mirror.
He further argued there was objective mobile phone evidence that undermined the complainant’s account and that this should have been summarised for the jury. He said the judge ought to have reminded jurors of Gladstone’s claim that the complainant had given him her phone number before entering the room and that her phone was active during the period she alleged she was falsely imprisoned and assaulted.
A final ground of appeal claimed the appellant was unfairly placed in a position suggesting the court would allow his previous convictions to be introduced after he described his mother criticising him “for being too friendly and kind”, reports The Mirror.
The prosecution argued this amounted to evidence of good character, meaning he had “dropped his protection or shield” and opened the door to disclosure of prior convictions. The trial judge agreed, leading to Gladstone making a section 22 admission before the jury withdrawing any evidence of good character.
The defence maintained that this admission was prejudicial, making it impossible for the jury not to infer he was of bad character, with Mr McGinn arguing that revealing the nature of his previous convictions would have had “a devastating impact on the trial” given the emotive charge of rape, reports The Mirror.
For the State, Patrick Gageby SC said Gladstone had portrayed himself as being of good character, relying solely on his own statements, and noted that he had spent substantial time in custody for serious crimes.
Addressing the jury’s question on false imprisonment, Mr Gageby said the judge had already delivered a comprehensive charge covering all relevant matters about an hour earlier and was entitled to answer the query as he did, while also submitting that a judge is not required to recount every detail of the evidence, reports The Mirror.
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