The Court of Appeal reduced T. G.’s sentence for seven sexual assaults from four years and six months to three years and nine months, finding that the sentencing judge had not given enough credit for his guilty plea. The new sentence is to run from 22 March 2017.
The appeal concerned offences under section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, as amended. T. G. had pleaded guilty at an early stage. The sentencing judge imposed one sentence of four years and six months on one count and took the other six counts into consideration, rather than imposing consecutive sentences.
The Court of Appeal said the maximum sentence for each offence was five years. It set the appropriate headline sentence at five years, then reduced it by about 25% to recognise the value of the plea. The court said guilty pleas in historical sexual abuse cases are often of considerable value, and that this plea spared the complainant from having to give evidence at a trial.
The appeal also challenged the weight given to aggravating and mitigating factors, the consideration of rehabilitation and the refusal to backdate the sentence to 29 July 2016. The court said the main issue was the credit for the plea. It upheld the refusal to backdate: T. G. had been taken into custody in July 2016 after a suspended sentence for a separate 2013 sexual assault conviction was activated following a breach of conditions. Backdating the sentence in this case would have negated the consequence of that breach.
The judgment said the complainant was aged between 11 and 14 during the assaults, which took place between 1996 and 1999. The sentencing judge had referred to T. G.’s guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí and expressed remorse, while saying he must be punished. The appeal court found an error in principle only in the allowance for the guilty plea and varied the sentence accordingly.