Sex crimes sentencing - Three-strike law must be considered

Amid all the recent calls for a constitutional referendum on children’s rights and talk of the need for measures to protect children from paedophile abuse, the overturning yesterday of the life sentence imposed on a 45-year-old paedophile for the rape of two young boys is being met with a degree of stunned incredulity.

Philip Sullivan —a convicted paedophile who had pleaded guilty to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault of two young boys from April 2004 to April 2006 — had previously served two other prison terms for similar offences. Believing that he was likely to re-offend, if ever released from jail, Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced him to life in prison last year.

Although the Court of Criminal Appeal recognised that, because of the repeated nature of his offences, Sullivan “represented a continuing danger to the public,” it nevertheless ruled that the judge had erred in principal in imposing a life sentence.