A school bus driver who "inveigled" his way into the family of a child with special needs before sexually abusing the boy for years has had his jail sentence almost doubled by the Court of Appeal.
In delivering the sentence on Thursday, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy ruled that the sentencing judge had made an error of principle in suspending a part of the original sentence against the man.
On November 17th, 2021, the now 62-year-old respondent, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to several sample charges of indecent assault relating to offences from 1985 to 1988 in the southeast of the country. He also admitted a charge of possessing child pornography in June 2014, relating to 11,962 images, 275 video files, and 457 text files.
Suspended sentence
He was sentenced in June 2022 to five years on each charge of indecent assault, to run concurrently, with the final two years suspended, and three years for the charge of possession of child pornography, to run consecutively, with the final two years and six months suspended. This made a total of three years and six months in prison.
Mr Justice McCarthy, outlining the background of the case, said that the victim had special needs, and the respondent was a bus driver taking him and others to school. He said that the victim’s family circumstances were difficult, and the respondent inveigled his way into the family as a family friend.
The judge said there was “substantial evidence of grooming” involved. An investigation was started in 2013 as a result of the complaint of the victim, and during this investigation the possession of child pornography was discovered.
Mr Justice McCarthy said that a probation report on the respondent indicated that, while acknowledging his offending, the respondent displayed “a distorted opinion” of the offences.
Mr Justice McCarthy said that the sentencing judge had suspended a portion of the sentence due to the lapse of 30 years since the indecent assaults.
Error of principle
He went on to say that, while it seemed to the Court of Appeal that the headline sentence was correctly set by the judge at seven years and then reduced to five years, the sentencing judge made an error of principle by suspending the final two years.
“We think that this error of principle gave rise to a sentence that did not reflect the seriousness of the offences,” he said, ruling that the court was going to quash the sentences on all counts and proceed to re-sentencing.
He noted that the respondent has been spending his time constructively in custody and had enrolled to take part in the Building Better Lives programme to deal with his behaviour.
Concerning the possession of child pornography, Mr Justice McCarthy said that the child victims are very real and must be seen as vulnerable, thus facilitating their exploitation.
The court increased the total sentence to six years and six months.
