Patrick Nevin's combined net sentence increased to 14 and a half years

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

The Court of Appeal increased Patrick Nevin's combined net sentence for rape and sexual assault from 12 years to 14 and a half years. The proceedings were reported on 31 July 2020.

The court substituted a 10-year rape sentence and left an eight-year sexual-assault sentence unchanged. It made the sentences consecutive, giving an aggregate of 18 years, and suspended the final three and a half years. Nevin was to remain under Probation Service supervision for five years after release.

Nevin pleaded guilty to raping one woman and sexually assaulting a second woman. The rape took place at Bellewstown, Co Meath, on 12 July 2014; the sexual assault occurred four days later at an unknown place in Co Meath. He had met both women on Tinder.

He had been due to stand trial at the Central Criminal Court but changed his pleas after a ruling allowing the prosecution to introduce evidence from a third woman. Justice Eileen Creedon originally imposed concurrent sentences of 14 years for rape and eight years for sexual assault, with the final two years suspended.

Nevin had already received five and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting that third woman at the UCD campus on 23 July 2014. He appealed the conviction but later withdrew the appeal.

On 30 July 2020, Cathleen Noctor SC appealed the sentence for the first two offences on behalf of the DPP, arguing that it was unduly lenient. Michael Bowman SC, for Nevin, argued that the original headline sentence was excessive.

Justice Isobel Kennedy delivered the appeal judgment on 31 July, sitting with Court President Justice George Birmingham and Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh. She said the net sentence of 12 years was too low and that consecutive sentences were called for.