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 yesterday when it increased the accused's sentence to 10 years.
Paul Moore (40), Mountjoy Square, Dublin, was described as a serial rapist when he was sentenced in 2003 to six years for the rape of a woman in her 40s, whom he met in a Dublin pub. He had pleaded guilty to raping and assaulting the woman in his apartment on July 27th, 2001.
In proceedings before the appeal 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 heard 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 over the appeal court, 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 10 years imprisonment to date from July 21st, 2003. At his sentencing in 2003, the court was told Moore had been released from prison in September 2000 after serving a sentence for rape. He also had two previous convictions for indecent assault.