The Court of Appeal increased the sentences for seven counts of sexual assault against a child, replacing 18-month terms with four-year terms. It suspended the full terms, as it did with the original sentences, and left sentences on five other counts unchanged.
The court was hearing an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to review the sentences as unduly lenient. C. McC had pleaded guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin to 12 counts of sexually assaulting his niece between 1979 and 1985. The court’s judgment said she was about six or seven to 13 years old at the time. Other counts were discontinued by a nolle prosequi during the trial.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had acted within his discretion in suspending the sentences, given the unusual circumstances and the respondent’s conduct over the decades after the abuse. The judgment cited his early acknowledgement of abuse, treatment and counselling, leaving the priesthood, avoiding contact with his niece, and contributing to her counselling costs. It also noted his wife’s significant health problems and that he was her sole carer.
The appeal court nevertheless identified an error of principle: the sentencing judge had treated the maximum sentence for every count as two years. The Court of Appeal said the maximum had been increased to 10 years from 5 June 1981. It quashed the sentences on counts 21, 23, 29, 33, 35 and 37 and re-sentenced the respondent on those counts to four years’ imprisonment each, suspended in full on conditions similar to those imposed below.
The court’s final summary lists counts 13, 15, 16, 17 and 19 as remaining at 18 months each, suspended in full on the original conditions. The judgment’s earlier passage identifying the affected counts also includes count 31, but its final summary does not list that count among those receiving four-year sentences.