Two men have sentences cut for attempted rape

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

Two men had their sentences replaced by the Court of Appeal with ten years’ imprisonment each, the final 12 months suspended. The proceedings were reported on 23 October 2015.

Mr Justice Alan Mahon, sitting with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, required each man to enter a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour while in custody and for three years after release. Both agreed.

The court found that greater consideration should have been given to their rehabilitation in prison. Opposing the sentence appeal, counsel for the DPP, Patrick McCarthy SC, described their conduct as a “predatory gang rape” and argued that their sentences should stand.

The men, aged 22 and 24 in the report and unnamed for legal reasons, had denied rape, attempted rape, oral rape and sexual assault of a woman at an unknown location in Cork on 13 September 2009. They were aged 16 and 18 at the time; the woman was 31.

On 7 November 2012, following a nine-day trial, a Central Criminal Court jury unanimously convicted the 22-year-old of attempted rape, sexual assault and oral rape, and the 24-year-old of attempted rape and sexual assault.

Vaginal rape charges against all three accused were dropped during the trial because the woman said they had not penetrated her, despite their statements to gardai that they had. The third man was ultimately acquitted on all counts.

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to stealing the woman’s car at the outset of the trial.

Mr Justice Paul Carney originally jailed both men for ten years each on 31 January 2013. Their conviction appeals were dismissed in July 2015, leaving their convictions standing.