THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has upheld arguments that a life sentence imposed on a man for raping two young boys was unduly severe, and has replaced it with a conditional 12½-year prison term.
Philip Sullivan committed the offences after he had served earlier jail terms for offences also involving the sexual assault of other males.
Yesterday, when substituting a 15-year term for the life sentence imposed by Mr Justice Paul Carney upon Sullivan, with the final 2½ years suspended on conditions, the CCA stressed again that life sentences could be imposed in exceptional circumstances, but that in this case, a determinate sentence was more appropriate.
The life sentence was imposed in the Central Criminal Court in January 2008 on Sullivan (45), a native of Kildare town with an address at Botanic Road, Glasnevin, Dublin, after he admitted 11 counts including anal rape, attempted anal rape and sexual assault on two young males in a Dublin city centre location on dates from April 2004 to July 2006.
That court heard that, as well as raping and abusing his victims individually, Sullivan had made them masturbate one another. The trial judge imposed concurrent life sentences on each rape charge and five years on the sexual assault counts, and directed that Sullivan be registered as a sex offender.
In unrelated proceedings for offences also involving sexual assaults of males, Sullivan was jailed in 1995 for two concurrent terms of four years. He was jailed for five years in October 1997.
Yesterday, granting Sullivan’s appeal against the life sentence, the appeal court, with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Ms Justice Mary Irvine, said the offences involved “exceptional depravity” due to the frequency with which they occurred over a relatively short period. They were in the more serious category of such offences. The court said it was taking account of Sullivan’s previous offences, which indicated he will represent a continuing danger to the public.
Mr Justice Finnegan said Mr Justice Carney was correct in regarding Sullivan as representing a continuing danger to the public and in holding that, were it not for the previous sentences imposed in 1995 and 1997, a 10-year sentence was the appropriate sentence.
However, the trial judge had erred in principle in imposing a life sentence, he said. Sullivan was entitled to credit for his early plea of guilty, his co-operation with the gardaí and his apparently genuine expression of remorse.
When all mitigating and aggravating factors were taken into account, this was a case where “a determinate sentence” with “a significant period of post-release supervision” was appropriate, Mr Justice Finnegan said.
Imposing a 15-year sentence, the CCA said it would suspend the final 2½ years on condition that Sullivan attends counselling and complies with Probation Service directions. Sullivan would have to undergo a 10-year period of post-release supervision.
Earlier, Paul Burns SC, for Sullivan, argued that, when a plea of guilty is entered, the maximum life sentence may only be imposed in “exceptional circumstances”. When formulating sentence, the trial judge had only identified one exceptional circumstance – Sullivan’s failure to reform his behaviour in light of previous convictions for similar offences, he said.
The DPP opposed the appeal.