Brand New Podcast Series tells the extraordinary story of a couple jailed in Ireland for a crime that never happened
from
RT Documentary on One and RT Investigates
First Conviction
Narrated by Ruth Negga
Watch trailor here.
First Conviction sees the award winning RT Documentary On One team and the acclaimed RT Investigates unit come together for the first time to produce a revealing new six-part podcast series and TV documentary, which tells the extraordinary story of a couple jailed in Ireland for a crime that never happened.
In 2016 a couple are accused of a crime against their daughter and put on trial, the first of its kind, for a crime they maintain never even happened. They're found guilty and jailed, and the DPP eventually abandoned the case. Now facing the power of the State, the couple continue to fight for justice through the courts.
The RT team interviewed the couple at the heart of this story for more than a year and spoke with legal teams and experts to understand fully what the family have gone through over nearly 10 years.
The first two episodes of this gripping new podcast series are now available on all podcast platforms, with new episodes dropping each week.
The series, narrated by Oscar nominated actor Ruth Negga, will also be broadcast on RT Radio 1 at 6.30pm each Wednesday, beginning on 8th October.
At the conclusion of the six-part podcast series, a new TV documentary by the RT Investigates team on November 12th on RT One and RT Player will reveal the far-reaching consequences of the case and how the system got it so wrong.
This story tells of a family where the parents are accused of seriously harming their child. From the outset, they offer an explanation for their daughter's injury but, after bringing their child to hospital, medical staff form a different view. State agencies become involved and the couple are charged by Garda in 2017 with various offences, including child cruelty.
For over three years, they await trial, trying to maintain a normal family life. At all times, they plead their innocence, but they feel everyone is turning against them, including their own community. When their case reaches court, the couple are both convicted in 2019, something they never thought possible. News of their conviction makes headlines everywhere. They're each taken to prisons in different parts of Ireland and their children are placed in the care of relatives, with state agencies monitoring.
In prison, the couple begin to mount an appeal but things move slowly. They spend more than two years in prison before their appeal case is heard - at which point the judge finds their convictions to be unsound, they are released on bail and a new trial is ordered. When the family reunites, the young children don't recognise their mother and father.
Over the next couple of years, there are many court hearings, a second, inconclusive trial, and all the while, this couple continue to say they never injured their child. Then, with new expert medical evidence supporting the couple's story, the state decides to withdraw all charges against them. The DPP enters a nolle prosequi - meaning they are no longer pursuing a prosecution and although they say nothing further will happen. It leaves the family in a legal limbo.
But this couple want more - they are still before the Irish courts today, fighting to officially clear their names and finally receive certificates of miscarriage of justice. Then, and only then they say will they tell their children all of what has happened to them - and that they were entirely innocent all along.
From RT Documentary On One and RT Investigates
Listen now to First Conviction: www.rte.ie/podcasts
www.rte.ie/firstconviction
ENDS
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Brand New Podcast Series tells the extraordinary story of a couple jailed in Ireland for a crime that never happened
