DPP’s appeal against Robert Traynor’s suspended sentence dismissed

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the Director of Public Prosecutions’ appeal against Robert Traynor’s wholly suspended sentence on 21 December 2021. The DPP had sought imprisonment, arguing that the sentence was unduly lenient. The proceedings were reported on 21 December 2021.

Judge Pauline Codd had imposed a two-and-a-half-year sentence, suspended in its entirety, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in March.

Traynor pleaded guilty to possession of 1,938 images and 183 videos of child pornography and also admitted producing 1,650 computer-generated images. The possession offence related to 2 February 2018. The production offence related to 22 September 2014 and was described as contrary to the 1998 Child Trafficking Pornography Act.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy delivered the written judgment, sitting with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh. The court acknowledged that wholly suspending the sentence made it very lenient and that the pre-mitigation sentence was somewhat lenient.

However, the court found that Judge Codd had given sufficient weight to the early guilty plea, Traynor’s lack of previous convictions and his expressions of regret and remorse during counselling. Although full suspension lay at the very outer limits of the sentencing judge’s discretion, it remained within those limits.

The appeal court also considered whether imprisonment would now serve the interests of justice. It concluded that continued rehabilitation in the community was in society’s interests and declined to intervene.