John Giltrap loses appeal to cut sentence for rape

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

The Court of Appeal dismissed John Giltrap’s appeal to reduce his sentence for rape on 23 June 2022. The proceedings were reported on 23 June 2022.

Giltrap, of Termonbarry, Hospital Hill, Bunclody, Co Wexford, had pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of raping Caroline Kavanagh. The charges concerned various locations in Bunclody between December 1978 and March 1982. A jury at the Central Criminal Court in Kilkenny found him guilty on 20 counts, and Mr Justice Michael McGrath sentenced him to 11 years’ imprisonment on each count in December 2020.

Ms Kavanagh, who waived her right to anonymity, was aged between 10 and 15 when the offences took place. The Court of Appeal had dismissed Giltrap’s appeal against conviction in January.

Dismissing the sentence appeal, Mr Justice John Edwards said the court was satisfied there had been “no error in principle in this case”. He said the sentencing judge had given a considered and detailed judgment that was generous in the mitigation afforded. He sat with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy.

Barra McGrory SC, for Giltrap, said his client was aged between 18 and 23 when the offences were committed, had worked all his life and was now in poor health. Fiona Murphy SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the sentencing judge had discounted the sentence by four years, a significant reduction given that Giltrap had failed to acknowledge his guilt.