Lucy Domaille said she understood that people had a right to appeal court verdicts, but questioned the grounds on which the appeal had been brought and said the case had exposed wider concerns about the transparency and communication of legal proceedings.
Kirk Bishop, 40, was sentenced to six years in prison by the Royal Court, and an additional two by the Magistrate’s Court, after he admitted seven counts of trespass, one of burglary, and nine voyeurism offences. Bishop was arrested last September, and began his prison term in May. Police found 121 voyeuristic images and videos of local people engaged in sexual activity which had been filmed on his mobile phone. Mrs Domaille is one of 14 identified victims, but said a further 15 people were never identified.
‘He’s known me since school,’ she said, ‘and he worked with my husband for the last 15 years just 200m up the road from my house. When I first heard about his arrest, I never thought it would be me.’
Mrs Domaille, who has waived her anonymity as a victim to speak to the media, said the reasoning he gave for his appeal shocked and angered her.
‘He’s just purely appealing because he doesn’t think it’s fair,’ she said.
‘I don’t understand how that can be classed as a reason. I’m gobsmacked. I was led to believe there would’ve had to have been an error or new evidence. But there was none of that. He just doesn’t think it’s fair.
‘Well I don’t think it’s fair what he’s done to us. And how is it fair that 15 victims were never identified? 15 people he won’t serve a single day for.’
After initially finding out about the appeal, she said she had repeatedly sought further information from the court, but struggled to get answers about how the process worked, who would hear it and who would pay for it. She said she was told that an appeal was scheduled for 7 September, with a further hearing in December. Instead a decision was handed down on 11 August, and published by the Guernsey Press earlier this week.
Mrs Domaille said her anger at the news, and at the way she found out, had ultimately prompted her to speak publicly in a live Facebook video on Wednesday. In it, she criticised the length of sentence already received by Bishop, and the ruling from Court of Appeal judge Dame Julia Macur that the Royal Court had not given him sufficient credit for his guilty plea, or for his cooperation with the police by offering the pin code to his mobile phone.
‘He had no choice but to plead guilty. He was literally caught red-handed,’ she said.
‘He got a light sentence. Six years, not even half what he could have got.’
She said the reaction to her live video had been hugely positive, with many people expressing their shock at the news, and two deputies reaching out in support.
‘I just had to do it because I thought I have to speak,’ she said.
‘I’ve been angry about this for a very long time. I wasn’t allowed to attend any of the hearings because I was supposedly a witness – I wasn’t a witness, I didn’t know it was happening – how can I be classed as a witness? I was only allowed to be at the sentencing, which I went to.’
Mrs Domaille was particularly frustrated after court officials advised she could seek legal advice from a lawyer at her own expense if she wanted information about the appeal process.
‘That just kicked me off,’ she said.
‘The law officers are my lawyer. Taxpayers’ money pays for that. They are there to represent me. I am a victim and they are my lawyer.
'I’m only asking generic basic questions – what’s the date? Who’s allowed to appeal? Who pays for it? So why do they not have someone who can speak to me?’
Mrs Domaille said she believed a lack of transparency was creating ‘a huge lack of trust’ in the legal system.
‘And they are creating that themselves,’ she said.
Mrs Domaille said she now understood that the appeal would go ahead before the Guernsey Court of Appeal in December.
She said she planned to attend the appeal proceedings and hoped to see public support outside the court, but stressed that any demonstration should be peaceful.
‘It is not about shouting or violence,’ she said.
‘I just want to show these judges who fly in that this is Guernsey. This is who we are. We don’t put up with this. We don’t want this. He needs to stay where he is, because he is a danger to our society. The psychological analyst said he is a high risk of re-offending.’
She holds hope the visiting judges will ultimately reject the request to reduce Bishop’s sentence.
‘He might be getting very excited, but it could be very short-lived if they turn around and say “I don’t agree”,’ she said.
‘I just have to hope that will be the case.’
