Court expected to reduce 12-year sentence for sex assault

The Court of Criminal Appeal has ruled that the 12-year prison sentenced imposed on Clare man for a "drink-fuelled" sexual assault on a student in a caravan park was unduly severe.

Today the CCA held that Mr Justice Paul Carney had erred by imposing a sentence on Brian Mulvihill that went against the established sentencing norms.

The CCA will impose a sentence on Mulvihill, who was not present in court yesterday, after new legal terms commences in October.

In March 2007, at the Central Criminal Court Mulvihill (aged 29) of Lislanahan, Kilkee, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a then 20-year-old woman in Co Clare on August 6, 2004.

Mr Justice Carney sentenced Mulvihill to 12 years and ordered that he be registered as a sex offender.

Mulvihill appealed the sentence on the grounds it was unduly severity.

John Phelan SC said that Mr Justice Carney had imposed sentence after what had been a harrowing victim impact statement, but had not got any credit for factors including that he had pleaded guilty.

Counsel said that Mr Justice Carney had fixed a 10-year sentence which he increased to 12 years after noting that Mulvihill's plea had come just before a jury was scheduled to be sworn in for his trial and he could not be given the full benefit of an early plea.

The DPP opposed the appeal, and argued that the Judge was entitled to impose the sentence it did.

In its decision today, the CCA of Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Eamonn De Valera agreed that the sentence was unduly severe.