The Court of Appeal has reduced the overall prison term imposed on an anonymised man, J.S., for defilement offences involving three teenage girls contacted through the social-networking site Tagged.
J.S. had pleaded guilty to three offences under section 3(1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006. The Circuit Criminal Court imposed three consecutive two-year terms, producing an overall six-year sentence.
The three complainants were aged 15 or 16. The judgment records that J.S., then in his thirties, initially used a profile presenting himself as a teenage boy. He later disclosed his true age. He met each girl and had sexual intercourse with them at different locations, including isolated areas.
The Court of Appeal accepted that the conduct was serious. It involved planning, a substantial age difference, multiple victims and a pattern of seeking out young girls online.
However, the appeal court held that each offence belonged in the mid-range rather than the higher range of seriousness selected by the sentencing judge.
It also placed substantial weight on J.S.’s cooperation. After initially denying intercourse with the first complainant, he returned voluntarily to Gardaí, admitted it and identified the two other girls before any complaints had been made concerning them. He later made full admissions, pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, had no previous convictions and had undertaken extensive psychological treatment. He was assessed as posing a low risk of reoffending.
The court also found error in the original judge’s explanation for refusing to suspend any part of the sentences. Sentencing, it said, must focus on a proportionate punishment for the offender rather than on avoiding any perception that one individual victim has received less justice.
Resentencing afresh, the Court of Appeal assessed each offence at three years before mitigation and considered a 50% reduction appropriate if viewed individually. To reflect the three victims and course of offending, it imposed three-year sentences on each count, all to run concurrently from the date of the original sentences.