13 October 2016
[…] During the two
week trial defence barristers applied for the case to be thrown out, it can now
be reported.
They said that there
were inconsistencies in the complainants' evidence to police, to the court and
in cross-examination.
One of the girls was
a "proven liar", the defence teams claimed, who had fabricated
serious allegations about her home life prior to the sex assault claims.
Judge Edward Bindloss
decided that the question of the complainants' reliability was best left to the
jury and allowed the trial to continue.
Further problems with
the high-profile case arose during the evidence Mr Alfrouh gave, when it became
apparent major errors had been made by the interpreter during his key interview
with police after he was arrested.
The case, in which
there were three defence barristers and two barristers for the Crown as well as
two Arabic-speaking interpreters, was delayed by one and a half days while all
the defendants' interviews with police were checked and re-translated.
One serious mistake
arose when Mr Alfrouh described seeing Mr Badreddin and the girl kissing behind
the pavilion.
In his police
interview he was translated as saying he saw Mr Badreddin's penis and her
vagina touching.
But in front of the
jury Mr Alfrouh insisted he did not say that, and when the tape was checked, an
alternative translation which did not contain that passage was provided for the
jury.
He was also
translated as telling police he "tried to" kiss the girl who was with
Mr Badreddin, but this interpretation was changed to "wanted to" kiss
her, and that he stopped himself.
Later the judge was
to tell the jury the cause of the delays was that the police interviews needed
to be re-interpreted because errors had been made - "some of them minor,
some of them major". […]
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