Court reserves judgement in serial rapist appeal

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment in appeal brought by a serial rapist against the life sentence he received for sexually attacked a woman just five months after his release from prison for a previous assault.

In January 2007, Gerard Kelly (46) was jailed for the 2004 aggravated sexual assault of a woman, committed shortly after he had completed a 10-year rape sentence.

He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to aggravated sexual assault of a woman on the night of September 17-18th, 2004. Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed a life sentence on Kelly, which he has appealed.

Kelly, of no fixed abode but who was residing at Maureen Avenue, Sandyford, at the time of the 2004 offence, said he committed the crime so that he could be taken back into prison custody.

Prior to the 10-year sentence in November 1999, Kelly had been jailed in 1987 for eight years in England for rape and aggravated burglary.

Today the three judge CCA of Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Daniel Herbert and Ms Justice Maureen Clark reserved judgment in the case.

Counsel for Kelly Brendan Grehan SC said that Mr Justice Carney had erred by imposing a life sentence on Kelly after he had pleaded guilty to the offence.

Kelly, he said, had spared his victim from having to come to court to give evidence, and should have been given a discount.

Counsel added that the "exception circumstances" which merit the maximum sentence did not exist in this case.

In opposing the appeal counsel for the DPP Gerard Clarke SC said that despite the guilty plea Mr Justice Carney had imposed an "appropriate sentence" in the circumstances.

He said that Kelly's most recent offence "could not be taken in isolation" from his previous convictions.

He also told the court that in a probation report Kelly had said that his actions were a way of "getting back at women" after one of his relationships ended.

Previously the Central Criminal Court heard that Kelly grabbed the now 25-year-old victim while she walked to a friend's house and pushed her onto waste ground after telling her that if she made noise he would "slice" her.

He threatened her that if she told anyone about the incident he would burn down her family home and gave her details to indicate he knew her address and family members.

The victim offered Kelly her phone and money, telling her he did not want that.

Kelly handed her phone and money back when the assault ended after telling her several times he was sorry.

Kelly was previously jailed for the rape of a pregnant teenager at a football club ground, on Rochestown Avenue, on November 2, 1997, just three months after his return to Ireland after his English sentence.

The court also heard that Kelly had been the father of a daughter in England who was accidentally drowned, and had another daughter on his return to Ireland but the relationship with the mother ended with his 10-year sentence.

He also had a brother who was murdered and his body thrown in a river.