A long road that has been worthwhile, says rape victim

THE Court of Criminal Appeal has imposed a seven-year jail sentence on Co Clare bricklayer Adam Keane for the rape of a woman while she slept after finding that the initial three-year suspended sentenced he received was “unduly lenient”.

Following the court’s decision yesterday Keane’s victim, mother-of-three Mary Shannon, expressed her relief at the lengthening of her attacker’s sentence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed the initial sentence imposed by Mr Justice Paul Carney on Keane, aged 21, of Barnageeha, Daragh, Co Clare, for the rape of Ms Shannon, 33, also from Daragh, in a house in a Co Clare town on May 30, 2005. Counsel for Keane had opposed the application.