Pressure rises for consistent rape sentencing

The Government is facing mounting pressure to create new mechanisms to provide for consistent sentencing in rape cases, as anger grows over the suspended term handed down to a man who raped his girlfriend while she slept.

The victim, Niamh Nic Dhomhnail, waived her anonymity to express her shock at the sentence handed to her ex-boyfriend, the Norwegian Magnus Meyer Hustveit, at the Central Criminal Court.

He received a suspended seven-year sentence after he had pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one count of sexual assault against Ms Nic Dhomhnaill between 2011 and 2012.