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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Child/Minor Sexual Assault |
Sentence: |
12 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
0.05 |
Year Crime: |
1987 |
Year Convicted: |
1999 |
Year Cleared: |
1999 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Ireland |
County or Region of Crime: |
Waterford |
City of Crime: |
Cappoquin |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Pablo McCabe was co-defendant of Nora Wall Both were arrested in October 1996, and wrongly convicted on June 10, 1999 of raping a 10-year-old girl in 1987 or 1988 while Wall was in charge of the Coisceim Mercy nursing home in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland. McCabe suffered from schizophrenia and he signed two confessions that he later retracted. Wall insisted on her innocence. They were convicted of one count of raping the girl in 1987 or 1988 based on McCabe's confessions and the testimony of the "victim," while they were acquitted of raping the same girl in 1990, Wall was sentenced to life in prison on July 23, 1999, and McCabe was sentenced to 12 years in prison. After serving four days of her life sentence in Mountjoy Prison, Ms Wall conviction was quashed by Ireland's Court of Criminal Appeal on July 27, 1999 after it emerged that a crucial witness, Patricia Whelan, had admitted she lied in her testimony against Wall. Wall and McCabe were released on bond. On November 22, 1999 the Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed the setting asisde of the convictions with no order for a retrial after the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed Wall and McCabe were "entitled to be presumed innocent of all charges brought against them." On December 1, 2005 the Court of Criminal Appeal certified that Wall had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice (McCabe died in December 2002 at the age of 53.) The traumatic case, which began in October 1996, included 32 court appearances and a six day trial in the Criminal Court." (Irish Times, 1-10-2000). In 2005 Ireland's Court of Criminal Appeal declared Ms. Wall's conviction was a miscarriage of justice. Ms. Wall filed a claim for compensation. On November 2, 2009 the High Court granted Ms. Wall leave for judicial review to challenge the alleged refusal by Ireland's Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to make a decision on her application for compensation under Section 9 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1993. Wall was the first woman in the history of the Irish State to be convicted of rape, the first person to receive a life sentence for rape, and the only person in the history of the Irish State to be convicted based on Repressed memory evidence." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Perjury by the State's key witness and false confession by Pablo McCabe. |
Innocence Proved By: |
Conviction quashed by Ireland's Court of Criminal Appeals in July 1999. |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
50 |
Age When Released: |
50 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Nun Tells of Rape Trial Ordeal, Irish Times, Jan 10, 2000." |
Information Location 1: |
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/01/10/current/fpage_3.htm |
Information Source 2: |
"Nora Wall to challenge State for redress, Irish Times, November 3, 2009" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1103/1224257963361.html |
Information Source 3: |
"Wall was victim of a miscarriage of justice, RTE News, December 1, 2005" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1201/walln.html |
Information Source 4: |
"Nora Wall, Wikipedia.org (last visited August 17, 2010)" |
Information Location 4: |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Wall |
Information Source 5: |
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Information Location 5: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org