Mother helps clear BT man of 4th serious charge

(CNS): A man who was accused of catalog of serious crimes over the last three years, including rape, has been acquitted for the fourth consecutive time in the Grand Court. After several months on remand, Shane Edward Connor (37) was discharged by the court last week and freed from jail when charges that he threatened to kill his mother in September last year were dropped.

The man’s mother had requested a protection order from him instead of giving evidence against him and although Connor had denied the allegations, he did not object. Justice Michael Mettyear made the order under the domestic violence law, preventing him from going to a certain address or making contact with his mother or brother for three years.

Connor, a local man, walked away from the allegations and jail just weeks after a jury acquitted him of threatening to kill a prison officer in 2013 when he was held at the local prison. Connor had denied that charge as well but the crown had pressed ahead with the case. The incident took place when Connor was on remand on charges of rape but had been assaulted by another prisoner. He had reported that assault to the police but he claimed he was taunted by prison officers over his allegations.

In 2014 Connor was scheduled to face two rape trials in what were presented as unrelated and separate rape cases, but his defence team was able to make connections and raise the question of collusion in the cases. On the day of the first trial in February 2014 the complainant withdrew the allegations and Connor was acquitted. In the second case, which opened in June, a jury acquitted him after the complainant gave evidence that conflicted with CCTV footage and phone records.

Having been arrested in the wake of the original allegation back in March 2012, Connor served almost two years on remand before he was bailed. But he was later remanded again after the allegations from his mother were added to his existing charges for threats to kill while at HMP Northward.

Connor had threatened to take legal action against the crown for the prosecutions but so far no legal claims have been filed.