A claim by the Director of Public Prosecutions that a six year sentence for the rape of a woman which involved "a terrifying amount of violence" was too lenient was upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeal today.
Paul Moore (40), of Mountjoy Square, Dublin, was described as a serial rapist when he was sentenced in July 2003 to six years for the rape of a woman musician in her 40s whom he met in a Dublin pub.
His sentence was increased today to ten years.
He had pleaded guilty to raping and assaulting the woman in his apartment on July 27th, 2001. In proceedings before the court, the DPP argued the sentence was unduly lenient.
Last January, the appeal court found there was a conflict in the medical evidence placed before the trial judge in relation to the man's history of brain damage and that the trial court had failed to address that conflict.
The court was told that Moore had been involved in a serious road accident in 1982 and underwent a major personality change. In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding, said the onus of establishing a causation between the head injury and the offence rested on Moore's side and such a causation had not been established.
This was "a grave offence of rape involving trickery and force" and there must have been "a terrifying amount of violence" used, the judge said.
Moore had committed the rape one year after he was released from prison for a previous rape offence.
In the circumstances of the case, Mr Justice Hardiman said the court would grant the DPP's appeal and impose a sentence of ten years imprisonment to date from July 21st, 2003.
At his sentencing in 2003, Sgt Liam Hickey told the court that Moore had been released from prison in September 2000 after serving a seven-year sentence for rape. He also had two previous convictions for indecent assault.
In relation to the most recent rape, the court was told Moore had met the victim in a Dublin pub. They had some drinks and he had invited her to his apartment to look at a book where he raped her and forced her to perform oral sex.
The trial heard that at one point she tried to escape and Moore came after her, pulling her hair so hard that some of it came out. However, she managed to escape his grip and ran up the stairs. She banged on the door of another apartment in the building and the occupants let her inside where she called the Garda.