The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against an 18-year prison sentence imposed on J.M. for sexual offences against his daughter, but varied the sentence by backdating it to 20 October 2016, when he first confessed to the offences.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Donnelly on 27 June 2022, said the offending included rape and sexual assault over many years, beginning when the victim was three and continuing until she was 15, followed by a further sexual assault after a ten-year gap. The appellant had pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to 92 counts. The sentence combined concurrent and consecutive terms.
The appeal argued that the sentence was excessive and disproportionate, and that the sentencing judge had failed to give sufficient weight to mitigation. The appellant’s counsel relied on his early guilty plea, remorse, medical and psychiatric circumstances, and asserted low risk of reoffending. The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that the offending’s duration and nature, the victim’s young age, the breach of trust and the appellant’s previous convictions supported the sentence.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge was entitled to set a headline sentence of life imprisonment when assessing the rape offences and the aggravating circumstances. It found that the judge had considered the guilty plea, mitigation and totality of the offending. The appeal court concluded there was no error of principle and that 18 years was not excessive in the circumstances.
The court was, however, concerned that the sentencing judge had received confused information about an earlier sentence imposed in February 2016 for a separate sexual offence involving the appellant’s niece. That sentence was five years, with two years suspended, backdated to September 2015. The judgment said the sentencing judge may have understood that the earlier sentence was fully suspended or that it had ended in December 2017.
The appeal court held that the confusion could be addressed by changing the date from which the sentence ran. It dismissed the appeal but ordered that the 18-year sentence be backdated to 20 October 2016, when the appellant made admissions while in custody. The judgment does not otherwise alter the sentence.