The Court of Appeal has quashed the five-year sentences imposed on a respondent convicted of six counts of oral rape and resentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment on each count. The sentences remain concurrent, and the court also ordered post-release supervision on the same basis as the Central Criminal Court.
The offending was against one complainant, the respondent’s first cousin, when she was aged between eight and 12. It took place between 30 March 1998 and 31 August 2002, in the environs of the respondent’s family home and farm. The complainant said it happened at least six times. The court said the counts did not appear to be sample counts and proceeded on the basis that they covered all offending.
The respondent was born in 1983 and was aged between 15 and 19 during the period. The sentencing judge treated all offences as having occurred while he was a minor, partly because each count covered a period that straddled his 18th birthday. The Court of Appeal said that was wrong: the evidence showed he was over 19 when the last offence occurred. It found this was an error in principle.
The sentencing judge had set headline sentences of 10 years for each count, reduced them to six years to reflect the respondent’s youth, then applied a further one-year reduction for mitigation. The resulting five-year terms were concurrent and backdated to 16 May 2023, when he entered custody. The judge also ordered two years’ post-release supervision.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed, arguing the sentences failed to reflect the gravity and aggravating circumstances of the offences and gave excessive weight to youth and mitigation. The respondent’s counsel argued that the 10-year adult headline sentences were within the judge’s discretion and defended the treatment of age. The Court of Appeal held that the 10-year adult starting point was within the judge’s discretion, even though the appeal court might have chosen a higher one. It found the reduction to six years for a minor was an error in principle because at least one offence was committed when the respondent was over 19.
Resentencing on material that included an up-to-date prison governor’s report and information about the deteriorating health of the respondent’s brother, the court set an adult headline sentence of 12 years, reduced it to eight years for age, then applied one year’s mitigation. It imposed seven years on each count. The judgment was delivered on 25 July 2024.