James Maher’s sentence review led to consecutive one-year term

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

The Court of Appeal allowed the DPP’s application to review James Maher’s concurrent two-year sentences for indecent assault, finding them unduly lenient, in its judgment of 10 February 2015.

A linked Supreme Court extract records that the sentence on one count was replaced with a consecutive one-year sentence running from the date of the Court of Appeal judgment.

Maher pleaded guilty on 14 February 2012 to five counts of indecent assault involving one injured party. On 10 July 2012, he pleaded guilty to fourteen further counts involving another injured party.

The first group of offences occurred during 1984 in County Clare. The offences involving the second injured party occurred in County Clare between 1 January 1982 and 17 March 1984.

The sentencing hearing took place on 19 November 2012. The sentencing judge delivered judgment on 14 January 2013, imposing two years’ imprisonment on each of the 19 counts, all running concurrently.

The judge had been told by prosecution counsel that the maximum sentence for each offence was two years. On review, the DPP argued that it was ten years. Defence counsel accepted that the prosecution was not bound by its earlier submission, but did not concede that ten years was the correct maximum.

The sentencing judge recognised mitigation including the early guilty pleas, Maher’s insight into the harm caused and his lack of reoffending during the intervening years. The appeal court nevertheless found the sentences inadequate and unjustifiable given the calculated exploitation of vulnerable boys, grooming, deception and psychological damage.

The linked Supreme Court extract, dated 9 June 2016, also records that leave to appeal on the maximum-penalty issue was granted.