The Court of Appeal has replaced life sentences imposed on E.T. for defiling an 11-year-old boy with 15-year prison terms and reduced ten related sexual assault sentences from 14 years to 11 years.
E.T. had pleaded guilty to offences committed between December 2008 and April 2009. The court said the abuse involved repeated sexual acts after E.T., then 33, opened a grocery and sweet shop under a false name while already on the sex offenders register.
The boy and friends had asked for work at the shop. The complainant then spent substantial time there doing tasks including stacking shelves and deliveries. E.T. also brought him to an apartment at Belvedere Place and, on one occasion, to a house in Dundrum where the first assault occurred.
The court regarded several features as especially serious. E.T. had six previous convictions connected with sexual offending, including offences against boys. He had previously failed to comply with sex-offender notification requirements. The Court of Appeal described his use of an alias and position around local children as deliberate rather than inadvertent.
The complainant initially denied abuse when Gardaí became suspicious. He disclosed it in October 2011. Evidence at sentencing described serious consequences including self-harm and a suicide attempt.
The Central Criminal Court imposed life imprisonment on four defilement counts and the statutory maximum of 14 years on ten sexual assault counts.
On appeal, E.T. argued that maximum sentences were inappropriate and that insufficient weight had been given to rehabilitation. The Court of Appeal agreed on that point.
It accepted evidence that E.T. had engaged fully for about three years with psychological services and the Better Lives Programme in Arbour Hill. That rehabilitation work was significant enough to move the case outside the small category requiring maximum or indeterminate punishment.
The life terms were therefore replaced with 15 years and the 14-year sentences with 11 years. All sentences remained concurrent and dated from March 14, 2014.