The Court of Appeal replaced a fully suspended sentence for a man who pleaded guilty to four indecent assaults with a sentence requiring two years in custody. It ruled that suspending the original sentence in full was unduly lenient.
A.S. had pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court on 30 November 2016. On 31 May 2017, he received consecutive terms of 14 months for each count, totalling 56 months, with the whole sentence suspended for five years. The Director of Public Prosecutions applied under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to review the sentence. The Director accepted that 56 months was an appropriate term; the challenge focused on its full suspension.
The Court of Appeal heard that the assaults occurred in 1985 and 1986, when the complainant was seven and A.S. was 19. The court described repeated offending over about 12 months, three to four times a week, at three locations: the respondent’s home, a shed behind it used as a gym, and a gym where he worked and the child attended on Saturday mornings. The judgment said the abuse included A.S. using the child’s hand to masturbate and acts of oral rape. It also referred to threats intended to keep the child silent.
The court cited the complainant’s victim impact statement as describing lasting suffering. The judgment also recorded that A.S. had moved to the UK at 19 and had lived there for about 30 years. He had lost two jobs after his conviction, and the court had been told he might have to move address. A 2008 order from South Cheshire Magistrates Court relating to explicit text messages to a 15-year-old boy was not treated as a previous conviction.
Applying the test for an undue leniency review, the Court of Appeal said the offences were serious and warranted a significant period in custody absent the most extenuating circumstances. It found none. The sentencing judge had obtained an undertaking that A.S. would not return to Ireland, but the appeal court said this would likely cause little hardship and meant conditions such as supervision, treatment or sex-offender registration could not have practical effect.
The court re-sentenced A.S. to 56 months’ imprisonment, suspending the final 32 months for three years on condition that he enter a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. The resulting custodial term is two years. On A.S.’s application, commencement was delayed until 18 June 2018, subject to strict conditions, to allow him to arrange his personal affairs.