Richard O’Mara loses appeal against rape sentence

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

Richard O’Mara’s appeal against his sentence for raping a schoolgirl twice was dismissed by the Court of Appeal, in a judgment reported on 23 March 2022.

O’Mara had been convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of two counts of rape and received a 14-year sentence, with the final two years suspended. The offences took place at a birthday party in Clare in October 2015.

The appeal court found the headline sentences were at the outer limit of the trial judge’s discretion, but not unduly high, and upheld the sentence. It also noted that the trial judge had already accounted for mitigating circumstances when suspending part of the term.