Sentence for rapes was ‘seriously inadequate’

The Court of Appeal has doubled the "very seriously inadequate" six-year sentence imposed on a man who raped one woman and sexually assaulted another within hours of each other.

In October 2011, Christopher Farrell, aged 30, had concurrent sentences totalling six years imposed on him by Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan for the rape, oral rape, attempted rape, and false imprisonment of one woman and the sexual assault of another on September 16, 2007, at two locations in Louth.

Farrell, last of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda, had pleaded not guilty to the offences but was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of the attacks. He has 26 previous convictions, including one for assault causing harm to another woman.