Rapist has life term reduced to 10 years

A life sentence imposed on a Dublin man for the rape of his teenage nephew has been cut to 10 years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

A 14-year concurrent sentence imposed on the same man on child pornography charges was also reduced to eight years. The court further cut from five to four years concurrent terms imposed for sexually assaulting several other boys, aged from 10 to 16, on dates between 1989 and 1999, and cut from five to three years a sentence imposed for possession of child pornography.

The effect of the decision by the three-judge CCA is that the single 42-year-old man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victims, all of whom he is related to, will serve a total of 10 years. He had pleaded guilty to 11 charges and six others were taken into consideration.

In reducing the sentences, the court took into account his guilty plea, his co-operation with gardaí and lack of previous convictions.

Before sentencing the man at the Central Criminal Court in November 2002, Mr Justice Carney stopped viewing a video recording made by the man of his activities with one boy and remarked: "I cannot watch any more of this."

The CCA also viewed part of the video but, giving its judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Geoghegan, sitting with Mr Justice Kearns and Mr Justice Herbert, said the court had not seen in the video any additional factor which was relevant to the determination of an appropriate sentence.

The trial heard gardaí found 200,000 pornographic images on the man's computer and on CD-roms and floppy discs, mostly involving adult pornography, after a victim had complained to them in June 2000. They found 783 images of the man's abuse of his victims.

He had admitted buggering and assaulting a 13-year-old boy on dates between January 1st, 1991, and December 31st, 1993, in Galway and at his home. He also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three other boys between 1989 and 2000 in his home and in hotels. He further admitted allowing children in his care to be used for the purposes of the production of child pornography and to producing child pornography on dates from 1989 to 2000.

Giving the CCA judgment, Mr Justice Geoghegan said the seriousness of the offences could not be underestimated but there were mitigating factors which must be taken into account, including the absence of previous convictions and the plea of guilty.