Gerard Kane returned to prison after breaching rape sentence

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

Gerard Kane was returned to prison after the Central Criminal Court activated one year of a suspended sentence imposed for rape. The proceedings were reported on 28 January 2020.

Kane pleaded guilty in 2012 to raping a woman at her home on 17 June 2011. He had initially denied the rape charges and pleaded guilty after five days of a trial, during which the woman had given evidence and been cross-examined.

In November 2012, Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan sentenced him to 12 years in prison, with the final three years suspended. Kane was released in August 2018 and committed two burglaries in January 2019.

In 2019, Kane pleaded guilty to burglary at Dún Laoghaire Further Education Institute, burglary at Silchester Crescent in Glenageary and handling stolen property on 20 January 2019. In December 2019, he received a three-and-a-half-year sentence for the burglaries, with the final year suspended.

Dealing with the suspended rape sentence, Mr Justice Michael White activated two years but reduced the period to one year to give Kane credit for time spent in custody on the Circuit Court charges. The activated year was to run consecutively to the burglary sentence.

The judge said Kane had been released into the community “fairly cold” and had immediate issues with rough sleeping and addiction. Patrick Reynolds BL, defending, said Kane had been homeless, unable to access a GP for his medication and without supports; he began self-medicating and offended again.