The Court of Appeal has reduced M.M.’s effective prison sentence from eight years to six years for sexual offences committed against a boy over two separate periods between 1991 and 1999.
M.M. had been convicted at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court in May 2014 of 25 counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted buggery of a person under 17 and one count of buggery of a person under 17. His conviction appeal had already been dismissed in May 2016.
The complainant, identified as A, was one of twin brothers. The offences occurred in or around the twins’ family home and farm, where M.M. worked as a labourer. A was aged between about seven and 15 during the offending, while M.M. was between 16 and 24.
The court said the abuse occurred during two distinct periods separated by about three years. It involved touching, masturbation, oral sex and an act of buggery. Although the judgment recorded that many incidents were consensual in nature, it stressed that they were initiated by M.M. and together amounted to extremely grave sexual abuse of a child.
The original sentence combined two four-year terms consecutively, producing eight years in custody. The Court of Appeal agreed that consecutive sentencing was appropriate because the offending was prolonged, repetitive and separated into two distinct periods.
However, it found that the later period was more serious, including an act of buggery and occurring when M.M. was older. That difference should have been reflected in the sentence structure.
The court substituted three years for the first period and four years for the second, to run consecutively. It then suspended the final 12 months of the four-year term for two years, producing an effective six-year prison sentence.
The court also considered M.M.’s progress in prison, his lack of relevant previous convictions and his family circumstances. A one-year post-release supervision period was included within the suspension arrangements.