‘Unduly lenient’ sentence for abuser

The prison sentence imposed on the father of abuse victim Fiona Doyle was "unduly lenient", the Court of Appeal has found.

Patrick O’Brien, aged 75, had pleaded guilty to 16 charges of rape and indecent assault at Mackintosh Park, Pottery Rd, Dún Laoghaire, from 1973 to 1982.

Trial judge Mr Justice Paul Carney had described it as one of the worst cases of abuse one could find.

Mr Justice Carney, taking into account O’Brien’s health problems, sentenced him to 12 years in prison, suspended the final nine, and granted him continuing bail pending an appeal. Bail was taken from him a few days later, the court heard yesterday.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said the court was satisfied the sentence was unduly lenient. The three-judge panel acceded to the DPP’s application to review his sentence.

Mr Justice Ryan said the court will give reasons for its decision on January 19 and will impose a new sentence on O’Brien a week later.

Brendan Grehan, for the DPP, said it had brought her appeal on grounds that O’Brien’s age was not sufficient alone to mitigate his sentence.

Mr Grehan submitted that there was insufficient evidence to say O’Brien’s medical conditions would make prison life intolerable; for example, there was no evidence he had a terminal illness.

The proper evidential foundation was not submitted to enable the sentencing court to take the view that it did, Mr Grehan said.

That was the negative evidence, Mr Grehan said, and against that there was positive evidence from Frances Nagle O’Connor, director of nursing services with the Irish Prison Service, who said none of O’Brien’s medical conditions were such that the prison authorities could not deal with them.

Mr Grehan said the Supreme Court had held that even if the age of a person suggested they would spend the rest of their lives in prison, that could not be considered a life sentence.

O’Brien’s barrister, Mary Rose Gearty, said Mr Justice Carney was one of the most experienced judges in this area and was entitled to suspend the period that he did.

She said it was accepted that the 12-year sentence reflected the horrendous offending behaviour.

Mr Justice Ryan asked Ms Gearty if she could think of another case where mitigation had reduced a sentence by three quarters.

Ms Gearty said a three-year jail sentence was significant and a 12-year sentence was “not nothing”.

She said O’Brien was now facing a proportion of his life in jail, which “could be the rest of his life”.

The 74-year-old had come before the courts for sentencing where there had been no evidence of offending behaviour for 30 years, according to Ms Gearty.

She said the appeals court was not in the business of substituting sentences for ones it might prefer to impose.