The Court of Appeal has quashed and replaced a sentence imposed on J.K. for attempted rape and rape after finding that a condition attached to its suspended portion was unfair, unlawful and disproportionate.
The appeal concerned the final year of a nine-year sentence for four rape counts. The Central Criminal Court had suspended that year on condition that J.K. complete the Better Lives Programme while in custody. The Court of Appeal found the condition could not be met unless he acknowledged his guilt, although he had maintained his innocence. It said the condition was very unlikely to be fulfilled and could operate coercively.
The court first granted J.K.’s application to extend the time to appeal. He had applied in July 2024, more than six years after the sentencing. The Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose the extension. The court said the unusual circumstances and the issue raised justified hearing the appeal.
J.K. was convicted by a majority jury verdict at a retrial in June 2018. The offences concerned his cousin, identified as M in the judgment: an attempted rape in January 1984 and four rapes between roughly mid-1985 and mid-1986. The trial judge imposed six years for the attempted rape and nine years for each rape count, all concurrent, with the final 12 months of the rape sentences suspended subject to the programme condition and a €100 bond.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had intended to encourage rehabilitation. But it held that the suspended portion could not properly be made conditional on satisfying a precondition to accessing the suspension. It also found that the structure risked making the suspended year amount, in reality, to immediate imprisonment with a deferred commencement date.
The court quashed the original sentence and resentenced J.K. It imposed the same concurrent terms: six years for count 1 and nine years on each of counts 2 to 5, backdated to the original sentence date. It suspended the unserved balance of the nine-year sentences from the appeal judgment date, for one year from J.K.’s release. The suspension is subject to a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and to supervision by the Probation Service, including compliance with its directions to attend any course, training or programme.
The court did not disturb the convictions. It said the appeal concerned the sentence’s structure, and noted that no complaint was made about the headline terms or the mitigation discount.