Rapist's sentence increased to 10 years

The Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) has upheld the DPP's arguments that a three-year suspended sentence imposed on a man for the rape of a mother of three while she slept was "unduly lenient" and has instead jailed the man for seven years.

The appeal court ruled that the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney, seemed to have "ignored" the aggravating factors in the rape by Adam Keane of Mary Shannon, including the fact Keane illegally entered Ms Shannon's home in the early hours of the morning, raped her while she was asleep and left her so distressed she had left her home of nine years and not returned.

Such a crime had "serious and continuing consequences" for Ms Shannon and made others feel unsafe, the Chief Justice, Mr John Murray, presiding over the three-judge court, and sitting with Mr Justice Peter Charleton and Ms Justice Mary Irvine, said.

He was giving the CCA's reserved judgment on the DPP's application for a review of the sentence imposed last March on Keane on grounds it was unduly lenient. Keane (20), a bricklayer, of Barnageeha, Daragh, Co Clare, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of the rape of Ms Shannon (33), also from Daragh, while she slept in a house in the town on May 30th, 2005.

The trial heard that Keane, who was the boyfriend of a friend and then close neighbour of Ms Shannon, was known by his victim. On the night in question, Keane entered the house via an unlocked backdoor and went upstairs when Ms Shannon was upstairs in bed.

Initially Ms Shannon, who has been severely deaf since childhood, thought Keane was her boyfriend. When imposing the suspended sentence in March, Mr Justice Carney observed Keane had said the rape was out of character for him and that he came from a respectable home. Last May, Mr Justice Carney jailed Keane for three years, after finding he had breached the terms under which his sentence was suspended.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Murray said the appeal court was quite satisfied that the circumstances of the offence merited a custodial sentence. The CCA replaced the three-year suspended sentence imposed on Keane with a sentence of 10 years, with the last three years suspended. Keane also remains on the sex offenders register as a certified sex offender.

Rape, in itself "a grave physical assault" on a victim, was not accompanied in this case by additional physical assaults, but the offence was aggravated by the fact that Ms Shannon, a mother of three young children, was raped in her own bed in her own home in close proximity to her children by a man who had illegally entered her home during the early hours of the morning.

"Any idea that a man can trespass by stealth into a home at night and rape a woman and mother, taking advantage of the fact that she was asleep in her own bed, can be treated as other than an aggravated form of rape should be set at nought," the Chief Justice said.

"A crime of this nature, although directed at an individual, tends to make others feel unsafe," he added.

The Chief Justice said the incident had "very serious and continuing consequences" for Ms Shannon and her family. She had moved out of her home of nine years and had not returned because she found it distressing to do so. The family were effectively driven from their home and neighbourhood by Keane's actions.

"All this seems to have been ignored by the trial judge," the Chief Justice said.

Earlier, Mr Justice Murray noted that, when passing sentence on Keane, Mr Justice Carney had referred to the "NY" case, where a man jailed for four years for raping a woman had had the balance of his sentenced suspended by the CCA after serving just seven months in prison, and he had spoken of the need for consistency in sentencing.

Mr Justice Murray said the NY case was an exceptional case. The CCA was satisfied the facts and circumstances of the Keane matter, for sentencing purposes, were not similar to the particular combination of facts which arose in NY and Mr Justice Carney was wrong to treat the cases as somehow similar.

It appeared Mr Justice Carney's "preoccupation" with the decision in NY had distracted him from the essential particularities of this case, the CCA found.