Dr Sinéad Ring was one of seven invited speakers at the University of Glasgow’s Gerald Gordon Criminal Law Seminar in June. This was the fourteenth iteration of the prestigious event which brings together academics and practising lawyers on current challenges in criminal law. This year’s seminar was attended by Professor Penney Lewis, Commissioner for Criminal Law of the Law Commission of England and Wales.
Dr Ring’s paper was entitled “On relevance and consent: interrogating the uses of the victim’s previous sexual history in serious sexual offences trials in Ireland.” It drew on her ongoing Irish Research Council funded work with Rape Crisis Network Ireland on the law and legal practice around sexual experience evidence in trials of rape and other serious sexual offences. The project is focussed on ascertaining the views of practising lawyers, support workers and rape crisis counsellors about the operation of Ireland’s law on the admission of evidence of the victim’s sexual experiences.
Further details about the Gordon Criminal Law Seminar can be found here- https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/research/themes/criminallaw/gordonseminar/