Court of Appeal dismisses Michael Murray’s appeal against sentences totalling 35 years

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The Court of Appeal has dismissed Michael Murray’s appeal against sentences totalling 35 years for rape and related offences, including threats against two barristers and harassment of his victim. The court ruled that the sentences were justified given the gravity of the offences and the aggravating circumstances.

Murray was convicted in 2021 of threatening the barristers who prosecuted him in his rape trial and harassing his victim. In 2013, he was sentenced to 15 years for rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and abducting the woman’s child; that term was later increased to 19 years and backdated to February 2010. In 2021, he received consecutive sentences totalling 16 years for the later offences, to begin after the 19-year term.

The appeal court found no error in the sentencing judge’s application of the totality principle. It said the offences were at the highest level of gravity, with no mitigating factors, and concluded the consecutive sentences were proportionate.