The Court of Appeal reduced a post-release supervision order from seven years to three years, finding that the sentencing judge had exceeded the statutory maximum for a seven-year sentence. It otherwise upheld the sentence imposed on T.C. for six counts of sexual assault.
T.C. pleaded guilty on 24 February 2012 to six counts, treated as sample counts on a 21-count indictment. The sentencing judge imposed seven years’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently and backdated to 1 January 2011. The judge also placed T.C. on the sex offenders register and imposed seven years of post-release supervision, subject to conditions.
T.C. appealed, arguing that the prison term was excessive and that the sentencing judge had not given proper weight to mitigating factors, including the early guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí and professional reports. The Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the appeal on the sentence’s length but conceded that the supervision order was an error of principle.
The judgment recounts that the abuse began in 1984 and involved escalating sexual acts. The victim said she was afraid of T.C. and had been told to keep the abuse secret. The abuse stopped after she said she would tell her mother and gardaí. She made a complaint in 2009 after learning that T.C. was serving a sentence for sexual assault on another person. T.C. made full admissions, cooperated with gardaí and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
The court noted that the victim’s impact statement described lasting effects on her quality of life and intimate relationships. It also recorded that a Granada Institute assessment found T.C. at low risk of reoffending, but held that the sentencing judge was entitled to take a cautious approach to that assessment. The court considered the appeal submissions and found no error in the length of the prison sentence. It varied only the post-release supervision order, reducing it to three years, and otherwise left the original sentence undisturbed.