Humphries jail term ‘not lenient’

The two-and-a-half year jail term given to child abuser Tom Humphries last week is not unduly lenient, a sentencing expert has said.

The former Irish Times sports journalist pleaded guilty to two charges of defilement of a child, and four charges of sexual exploitation, in relation to the teenage girl he had groomed and abused.

Despite criticisms of the sentence, NUI Galway law lecturer Tom O’Malley said the four years, which Circuit Court Judge Karen O’Connor took as a starting point on the defilement offences, were close to the maximum five years she could have applied.