Rapist who impregnated step-daughter fails in appeal over jail term

A man who persistently raped his step-daughter when she was aged between 11 and 16, impregnating her twice, has lost an appeal against the severity of his 12-year jail term.

The 70-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 18 counts of raping and sexually abusing the woman on dates between 1974 to 1979 at their home in Cork.

The complainant, now aged 53, made a statement to gardaí­ in 2013 about the man, who moved into the family’s home after her father died and eventually married her mother.

She said her stepfather would take her out of her bedroom and onto the landing to have sexual intercourse with her three or four times a week. She said she dreaded Sunday evenings when her mother went to bingo because her stepfather would sexually abuse her. She said that on other occasions, he raped her while her mother was downstairs.

The woman said the defendant never worked and was an alcoholic who drank all the money her mother brought into the house.

The Court of Appeal heard that the woman became pregnant aged 15. She lost one child and another was put up for adoption.

Sentencing the man to 14 years imprisonment with the final two suspended, Mr Justice Tony Hunt placed the offending on the highest end of the spectrum.

Remorse

Mr Justice Hunt chose 18 years as the headline sentence, but reduced this to 14 on account of the man’s admissions, guilty plea and remorse. The final two years were suspended due to the man’s age and medical issues.

The man had already been serving a four year sentence, handed down in February 2015, for indecently assaulting the woman’s siblings.

Appealing the sentence, Orla Crowe SC, for the man, submitted that the starting point of 18 years was too high. She said she was relying on a case known as ‘RK’ in which a sentence of 18 years with the final five suspended was reduced by the Court of Appeal to 12 with the final two suspended following an appeal.

Mr Justice Hunt had specifically referred to that case in his sentencing remarks stating that the present offending was “a notch above the ‘RK’ case”.

Ms Crowe said her client’s case was “on a par” with ‘RK’ rather than being a notch above. She asked the court to consider imposing a sentence on her client along the lines of ‘RK’.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Imelda Kelly BL, said there was an atmosphere in the household of complete fear, beatings and threats of violence. These allowed the offending to continue and were "mechanisms of control". There was no evidence of any of that in 'RK'.

On Tuesday the Court of Appeal upheld the man’s sentence.

‘Notch above’

Mr Justice John Edwards, on behalf of the three-judge court, said it was significant that Mr Justice Hunt was also the sentencing judge in the 'RK' case. Mr Justice Hunt had expressed the view that the offending here was "a notch above" the offending in 'RK' and was "uniquely placed, and arguably best placed, to make that assessment," Mr Justice Edwards said.

While a sentence of 18 years was arguably at the very outer limits of the sentencing judge’s legitimate range of discretion, Mr Justice Edwards said it was not outside that range given the “egregious circumstances” of this case.

He said the Court of Appeal rejected “without hesitation” the suggestion that the sentencing judge gave an insufficient discount to reflect the mitigating factors.

A four year or 22 per cent reduction to reflect the plea of guilty and remorse shown was “adequate” in the court’s view. A further 11 per cent discount was afforded for the man’s age and ill health which, again, was entirely adequate in the court’s view.

Mr Justice Edwards, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Alan Mahon, said the court had not seen fit to uphold any of the man's grounds of complaint and the appeal against sentence was therefore dismissed.