A child rapist who repeatedly abused a young girl from when she was aged eight, including one instance when he tied her to a bed, held a knife to her throat and threatened her, will now serve over 15 years in prison after the Court of Appeal found his original 11-year sentence was too lenient.
The now 46-year-old man had ignored a warning by the court that it may not be in his interest to proceed with his sentence appeal.
If the three judges feel that an appeal is likely to result in a higher rather than lower sentence, they can remind an appellant's legal team of the "full range of powers" available to the court.
“Tying a child to the bed with tights or a scarf and holding a knife to her throat to reinforce that she ought not to tell anybody or he would hurt her and then raping her is an offence which, in our view, falls within the category of requiring up to life imprisonment,” said Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy on Thursday, re-sentencing the man to a total of 16 years in prison with the final six months suspended.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, carried out the abuse on the girl between the ages of eight and 11, leaving the victim suffering mental health issues as she felt as though her childhood had been taken from her.
The defendant was found guilty following a trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Waterford last year of eight sample counts of rape, nine sample counts of anal rape, eight sample counts of oral rape and nine sample counts of sexual assault on dates between August 2014 and August 2017 at his home in Wexford.
The victim was aged between eight and 11 at the time of the offences.
He was also found not guilty on three counts of rape at the direction of the trial judge. The man, who does not accept the jury's verdicts, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by Ms Justice Karen O’Connor, who also imposed a period of two years post-release supervision.
Ms Justice Kennedy noted that among the grounds of appeal against his conviction was an argument by the defence that the trial judge failed to give a corroboration warning in relation to medical evidence which found that the complainant’s hymen was intact.
However, Ms Justice Kennedy said that the findings of the doctor were neutral and did not render the complainant’s evidence unreliable.
She said that it falls to the discretion of the trial judge, who may assess the evidence and determine whether a warning is required.
Another ground of appeal was the argument that the judge failed to give sufficient attention to conflicts in the evidence concerning the doctor’s evidence.
Ms Justice Kennedy said that no requisition was raised at the trial following the judge’s charge to the jury, adding that the trial judge addressed the doctor’s evidence in some detail.
Saying that the court found no merit to the grounds of appeal, Ms Justice Kennedy said that the appeal against conviction was dismissed.
Moving on to the appeal against sentence, Ms Justice Kennedy said that an unusual situation arose, as after the appeal against conviction was heard, the matter proceeded to the hearing of the sentence appeal, at which point the court advised the defence of the court’s jurisdiction in such matters.
The appeal proceeded, only for an application to then be made by the defence to withdraw the appeal against sentence. Ms Justice Kennedy said the court was now going to refuse to grant this application, and she moved on to deal with the sentence appeal.
She said that the first offence of rape involved tying an eight-year-old to the bed, holding a knife to her throat and threatening to hurt her if she told anyone.
The appellant then raped her, causing her to bleed. This single offence alone, said the judge, merited a headline sentence at the top end of the mid-range.
This first rape was preceded by a sexual assault offence and then followed by many other rapes and sexual assaults over a three-year period on a young child.
Ms Justice Kennedy said that, therefore, the appeal should proceed as it was clear there was an error in principle, that being that the headline sentence nominated was too low.
She said that the complainant gave evidence that between the ages of eight and 11, she was sexually abused by the appellant. The complainant said she regularly visited his house and the sexual assaults included inappropriate touching and rapes by way of the penetration of her anus and mouth, all of which occurred on a regular basis.
Ms Justice Kennedy said that the abuse happened in the appellant's home and included such behaviour as grabbing the girl’s hand and pushing it down his trousers, while he also anally raped her and forced her to perform oral sex.
In her victim impact statement, the victim detailed how the appellant became more aggressive and sneakier as the offending continued. She described feeling scared and numb and felt as though her childhood had been taken from her. She has suffered with her mental health, has undergone counselling and is on medication to reduce anxiety and help her sleep.
Ms Justice Kennedy said it was the court’s view that the description of the first rape offence was very serious.
“Tying a child to the bed with tights or a scarf and holding a knife to her throat to reinforce that she ought not to tell anybody or he would hurt her and then raping her is an offence which, in our view, falls within the category of requiring up to life imprisonment,” she said, going on to say that nominating a headline sentence of 13-and-a-half years for that offence amounted to an error in principle.
She said that this error was compounded by nominating the same penalty for all subsequent rape offences.
Saying that this sentence constituted a substantial departure from what would be appropriate, Ms Justice Kennedy said the court would quash this sentence and re-sentence the appellant.
Setting a headline sentence of 20 years for the rape offences, Ms Justice Kennedy said the court would reduce this to 16 years and leave the sentences for the sexual assault charges the same as imposed by the original sentencing judge.
In summary, the court imposed 16 years in prison, with the final six months suspended.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
