The Court of Appeal has resentenced a man convicted of sexual assault and defilement, increasing the effective prison term from one year to two years after finding the original sentence unduly lenient.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2018, the court set aside the sentence imposed by the Circuit Court on 16 November 2017 and substituted four years’ imprisonment on all counts. It suspended the final two years on the same terms as the Circuit Court, and ordered that the sentences date from the same day as the original sentences.
The review was brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. It concerned sentences on 12 sample counts of sexual assault and five sample counts of defilement of a girl under 17. The original sentences were four years for sexual assault and three years for defilement, running concurrently, with the final three years suspended.
The judgment said the offending began when the complainant was 13, in or about April 2013, and continued through her school years and into adulthood. The court described the respondent as a close family friend who was a trusted adult. It said there was a significant age gap, grooming, and offending of lengthy duration and intensity.
The respondent had pleaded guilty at the earliest possible stage. The court also accepted that expressions of remorse appeared sincere, referring to letters to the complainant and her family. It said the Circuit Court judge’s six-year pre-mitigation starting point and reduction to four years were within the available range, and that some suspension was justified. But suspending three years of the four-year sentences reduced the term to be served to 12 months, which the Court of Appeal found went too far given the seriousness of the offending.
The court noted that the respondent was within weeks of his scheduled release and was already well into his sentence. It said that, in resentencing, it would suspend the final two years. The substituted sentence therefore requires two years to be served, subject to the stated suspension terms. The judgment does not specify further details of those terms.