The Court of Appeal allowed P.M.’s appeal against the severity of his sentences and resentenced him for three offences involving his young daughter. The court said the original judge had erred in assessing remorse and the weight due to mitigating factors.
A jury in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court convicted P.M. in May 2014 of encouraging or knowingly facilitating the production of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and child cruelty. The sentencing judge imposed five years’ imprisonment on each of the first two counts and three years on the third, with the last 12 months suspended in each case. The terms were concurrent and began on 31 July 2014.
The Court of Appeal upheld the sentencing judge’s assessment that the offending fell within the middle range for each offence. It said the conduct involved significant moral culpability and a substantial breach of parental trust, despite its brief duration and the non-commercial nature of the recording. The court also found that the offences had caused the child great psychological and psychosexual harm. It declined to endorse the COPINE scale in this case because it had received no expert evidence on the scale or how it should be applied.
The appeal court found that the sentencing judge was wrong to discount remorse. Considering the evidence as a whole, including P.M.’s cooperation with Gardaí and his dealings with professionals involved in his daughter’s case, the court considered that he was remorseful by the time of sentencing. It also held that the original suspended terms did not adequately reflect the mitigation, including his previous good character, cooperation, work record, cognitive functioning and the recognised potential for people with low intellectual functioning to find prison harder to endure. The court said his contested trial could not be held against him.
The Court of Appeal quashed the original sentences and imposed new concurrent terms. For each of the first two counts, it set a five-year headline sentence, reduced it by 18 months for mitigation, then suspended the final 12 months of the resulting 42-month term. P.M. must serve 30 months on each count. For child cruelty, it set a three-year headline sentence, reduced it by 12 months, then suspended the final year of the resulting two-year term, leaving one year to serve. All sentences run concurrently and date from 31 July 2014. The suspended portions carry the same conditions as those imposed by the sentencing court.