The Director of Public Prosecutions has lodged an appeal against a three-year suspended sentence imposed on a Co Clare man for the rape of a woman while she slept.
The appeal, on the grounds of "undue leniency", was lodged in the office of the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday. The suspended sentence was imposed by Mr Justice Paul Carney a fortnight ago in the case of Adam Keane.
Keane (20), a bricklayer, Barnageeha, Daragh, Co Clare, was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in February of the rape of Mary Shannon (33), Daragh, while she slept in her home on May 30th, 2005.
When imposing sentence, Mr Justice Carney observed that Keane had said the rape was out of character for him and that he came from a respectable home.
Waiving her legal right to anonymity afterwards, mother-of-three Ms Shannon said she was "absolutely devastated" by the "absolutely disgraceful" decision to impose a suspended sentence.
She said the court case was the most difficult thing she had gone through and she felt as if her life had been "torn asunder for nothing".
The sentence was also criticised by politicians and those working with rape victims.
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland yesterday welcomed the DPP's decision to appeal Keane's suspended sentence.
Kate Mulkerrins, the network's legal co-ordinator, said: "The appeal of this sentence is appropriate given that we feel a three-year suspended sentence totally departs from sentencing principles."
The case underlined the need to instigate urgently a sentencing guideline regime, she said.
During Keane's trial, Ms Shannon told Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, that she went to sleep on the night of the rape with the bedside lamp and bathroom light on because she was afraid of the dark.
When she woke up, the room was dark and a man was on top of her. She kissed him back because she thought it was her partner but when light from a street lamp came into the room she noticed that he had tattoos on his arms.
Her partner did not have tattoos and then she felt the man's hair and noticed that it was softer than her partner's and it had some kind of gel in it that he did not use.
Keane told gardaí that he could not recall anything about that night from the time he left a pub until being woken up by gardaí in his girlfriend's home.
The DPP has power under the 1993 Criminal Justice Act to seek a review of sentence in cases where he considers an unduly lenient term was imposed.
The appeal will now go into the list of the Court of Criminal Appeal and a hearing date will be fixed at a later stage.