Appeal court extends rapist's prison sentence by two years

A Co Limerick man who “terrorised” a 13-year-old girl during a prolonged sexual assault has had his prison sentence increased by two years by the Court of Criminal Appeal today.

The CCA today ruled that the original term of imprisonment imposed on the 48-year-old man had been unduly lenient and a departure from norm in the sentencing structure for sexual assault.

The three-judge court increased the man’s original sentence of four years with two years suspended to six years with two years suspended.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, had pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting the girl on February 24, 2007.

At the original sentence hearing in February last year, Judge Carroll Moran sentenced the man to four years, but suspended the final two and ordered he be put on the Sex Offenders' Register upon his release from prison.

The CCA, of Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe and Mr Justice Declan Budd today agreed with the DPP that the offence was toward the upper regions of the sentencing scale and warranted a more serious term than originally imposed.

Mr Justice Finnegan said that it was not clear where Judge Moran believed the assault rested on the sentencing scale, which ranges from non-custodial terms to a maximum of 14 years imprisonment for assault on a minor.

Counsel for the State, Mr Michael Collins SC, argued that Judge Moran had placed insufficient weight on the aggravating factors in the case.

Mr Collins acknowledged that there was no set method by which judges were compelled to approach sentencing, but said that Judge Moran had given no consideration as to where the man’s offence fell on the overall scale of sexual assault.

Mr Collins told the court that, as the man did not contradict any of the evidence offered by the complainant as to the details of the assault, undue weight had been given to his plea of guilty.

The court heard evidence as to the girl being “terrorised” by the man, who was in a relationship with the girl's mother, after he stripped naked and confronted her while she was babysitting his two-year old son.

The father-of-two, who had spend the evening drinking at a pub and had taken drugs, roughly removed her clothes and performed certain sexual acts on her in the sitting room and kitchen of a house, before bringing her upstairs with a view to taking her to a bedroom.

The girl eventually made her escape by kicking the man, getting free of his grasp and locking herself in a bedroom. The man then continued to attempt to kick the bedroom door down until the arrival of the girl’s mother.

Counsel for the respondent, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, told the court that while Judge Moran did not go through a “mathematical formula” while assessing the sentencing scale, it was clear he had regard to the man’s timely plea, his early admissions and evidence that this was a “once-off” attack.

Mr Sammon said that original sentence had been lenient, but in view of the man’s efforts at rehabilitation and his confrontation of his deviant sexual behaviour, it was clearly a carefully structured sentence and not unduly lenient.