The Court of Appeal reduced a 75-year-old man’s sentence for attempted rape and sexual assault, finding that the Central Criminal Court’s 12-year starting point was too high. It imposed nine years’ imprisonment, suspended half, and left the sexual assault sentences concurrent.
The ex tempore judgment was delivered on 9 December 2016 by Mr Justice Birmingham. The appeal concerned sentence severity. The man had pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court, which sentenced him on 15 January 2016. The Court of Appeal ordered that the revised sentences date from 21 October 2015, the date from which the original sentences ran.
The judgment said the offending was charged in two periods, between 2005 and 2008 and between 2010 and 2012. The indictment contained eight offences relating to four incidents, which the evidence at the sentencing hearing described as the entirety of the offending rather than sample counts. The complainant, the man’s niece, was aged between 11 and 18 during the offences. She had an intellectual disability and was in residential care with the HSE at the time of the sentence hearing. The court accepted her vulnerability as an aggravating factor.
The judgment records that the man made admissions during police interviews and entered an early plea. He had no previous convictions. A probation report described his capacity to elaborate on thoughts, feelings and behaviour as limited, and the appeal court considered him particularly vulnerable and emotionally and intellectually challenged.
The appeal court agreed with the sentencing judge that a non-custodial sentence was not an option. It also agreed with taking a high starting point to reflect the seriousness of the offences and then suspending a substantial part to account for mitigating factors. But it held that 12 years was an unduly high starting point, particularly because the most serious offences were attempts rather than completed rapes.
The court imposed nine years on the attempted rape counts, with four and a half years suspended. It set concurrent four-and-a-half-year terms for the sexual assault counts. The bond requires the man to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four and a half years after release. It also prohibits contact with the injured party indefinitely and requires 18 months of Probation Service supervision after release, with compliance with its directions.