The Court of Appeal has left two ten-year prison sentences in place for men convicted over a violent sexual assault near Glanmire, but suspended the final 12 months of each sentence to give greater weight to rehabilitation.
In a judgment delivered on 23 October 2015, the court allowed the appeals against sentence to that extent. The suspended part is subject to the appellants remaining in custody for the rest of their terms and for three years after release. Each must also enter a €100 bond in respect of the suspended sentence.
The appellants, Jimmy O’Brien and Shane Folan, were sentenced after a jury trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 7 November 2012. Their appeals against conviction had been dismissed by the Court of Appeal in July 2015, the judgment said.
The offences were committed on 13 September 2009 near Glanmire, County Cork. The court described the attack on Ms G, then 31, as horrific, degrading and violent, and said it was predatory and premeditated. The judgment said she was assaulted in the back of a van by a number of individuals, including the appellants, and was left with extensive bruising. O’Brien also pleaded guilty to taking her car without authorisation after her keys were taken.
O’Brien, who was 16 at the time of the offences, had received concurrent sentences of ten years for rape, ten years for rape under section 4 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, and four years for taking the car. Folan, then 18, received two concurrent ten-year sentences for attempted rape and sexual assault.
The appellants argued that the sentences were excessive, particularly given their ages and the need to allow for rehabilitation. Folan also argued that his sentence should have been lower because he was acquitted of the section 4 rape offence for which O’Brien was convicted. Counsel criticised the sentencing judge’s comments about the appellants’ youth and their decision to contest the charges.
The appeal court found no basis to distinguish between their ten-year terms, saying their relative youth had been taken into account. It concluded, however, that the sentencing judge might have given greater consideration to rehabilitation. The court therefore kept the ten-year terms but suspended each final year on the stated conditions.