Magnus Meyer Hustveit jailed for rape while girlfriend slept

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal retained Magnus Meyer Hustveit’s seven-year sentence with all but 15 months suspended on 15 March 2016. The Director of Public Prosecutions had successfully challenged the original sentence as unduly lenient. The proceedings were reported on 15 March 2016.

He had admitted one rape charge and one sexual assault charge at the Central Criminal Court. The offences against his girlfriend occurred between 2011 and 2012. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed a seven-year sentence, suspended in full, on 13 July 2015.

Mr Justice George Birmingham sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards for the review. Hustveit was required to enter a good-behaviour bond lasting seven years and was told he would be on the sex offenders register.

Mr Justice Birmingham said Hustveit’s cooperation, voluntary return to Ireland to face charges, previous good character and positive life in Norway warranted a substantially reduced sentence. These factors did not, however, justify suspending the entire term. His voluntary return for the review carried considerable weight because Norway did not extradite its own citizens.

Mary Rose Gearty SC, representing the DPP, applied to submit an updated victim impact report. Caroline Biggs SC, for the defence, objected to references to memory loss, hearing loss, seizures and blackouts because her side had received no medical reports supporting those assertions.

Mr Justice Birmingham accepted that the defence had grounds for concern about its inability to examine those assertions. The appeal court used the material available at the original sentencing, when the Central Criminal Court had accepted that the victim suffered harm which would continue.