The Court of Criminal Appeal has increased Gary Kinsella’s sentences for three rape offences from eight years, with the final year suspended, to 10 years, with the final six months suspended. The court allowed the Director of Public Prosecutions’ appeal, finding the original sentence unduly lenient. The sentences for threatening to kill and assault causing harm remain unchanged.
Kinsella had pleaded guilty to the rape offences, threatening to kill and assault causing harm after the first day of a trial in which the complainant had given evidence-in-chief. The appeal court said the plea came late, after the complainant had been required to prepare to give evidence on three occasions and had begun giving evidence at trial. It held that the credit given for the plea was excessive.
The judgment recounts evidence that Kinsella followed the complainant, assaulted her and threatened to kill her before raping her. The complainant also gave evidence at trial of anal rape, though that was not among the charges to which he ultimately pleaded guilty. The court described the prosecution case as very strong, referring to the complainant’s evidence, witnesses, garda evidence, forensic evidence and Kinsella’s statements.
The sentencing judge had placed the offences at the upper end of the scale and identified the following, violence, physical injury and threats. The appeal court agreed the offences were serious but concluded they were not at the very lowest end of the scale of serious rape cases. It said a sentence between 10 and 12 years would have been merited and that the original assessment and sentence were unduly lenient.
The substituted 10-year sentence carries a six-month suspension, conditional on Kinsella entering a €100 bond to be of good behaviour for one year after release. It also includes two years of post-release supervision by the Probation Service and cooperation with any programme for sex offenders or alcohol or drug addiction that the service considers appropriate. The court said Kinsella’s name would be entered in the Sex Offenders Register. The sentence dates from when he first went into custody on these offences.