A convicted rapist who has been released having served six years in jail has lost his High Court challenge to the requirement to indefinitely notify his name and whereabouts to gardaí.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke yesterday rejected the man's claim that the Sex Offenders Act 2001 - in imposing reporting obligations on him for an offence committed before the Act came into force - breached the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had contended that it was unconstitutional to impose reporting obligations on him when the offence occurred before the coming into force of the Act. However, the judge noted the Act's provisions were in force at the time the man's sentence was varied by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The man had admitted raping and buggering a mildly mentally-impaired woman and received an 11-year sentence which was reduced on appeal to eight years. He served six years prior to release in 2004. The court heard the relevant Act came into force on September 27th, 2001.
Mr Justice Clarke said the issues raised in this man's case had already been the subject of a comprehensive High Court decision by Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan in another case which also involved a challenge to the 2001 Act. Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan had dismissed the challenge and it would require a compelling change in circumstances, whether factual or legal, to justify him coming to a different view.
Mr Justice Clarke said it was also argued that a number of decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeal since Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan's decision supported the man's case.
He disagreed that those decisions meant that the burden imposed by the reporting requirements in the 2001 Act was part of the punishment for the purposes of the criminal sentencing process.