DPP v Adams
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judge | Clarke C.J.,Charleton J.,O'Malley J. |
| Judgment Date | 28 May 2019 |
| Neutral Citation | [2019] IESCDET 110 |
| Court | Supreme Court |
| Date | 28 May 2019 |
[2019] IESCDET 110
An Chúirt Uachtarach
The Supreme Court
DETERMINATION
Clarke C.J.
Charleton J.
O'Malley J.
IN THE MATTER OF SECTION 2 OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT 1993
| ORDER SOUGHT TO BE APPEALED |
| COURT: Court of Appeal |
| DATE OF ORDER: 24th April, 2018 |
| DATE OF PERFECTION OF ORDER: 21st September, 2018 |
| THE APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL WAS MADE ON 18th October, 2018 AND WAS IN TIME. |
This determination concerns a decision of the Court of Appeal made on 24 April 2018; [2018] IECA 114. The applicant John Adams claims to have found a newly discovered fact which would entitled him to appeal against four counts of unlawful carnal knowledge and two counts of sexual assault on three child victims, who were also photographed by him, or photographed by each other at his direction, in acts of sexual violence. Entries in the applicant's diary detailing serious sexual offences against the child victims were discovered and referenced in the original trial.
The three victims of the offences were children whom John Adams inveigled into becoming friendly with him, first of all in an apparently innocent way, and then were grossly exploited. The anonymity of the victims is protected and no fact will be mentioned which might be likely to lead in any way to their identification. The grooming of children began with pretended friendship with their families so that when the offences were committed, in and around 1992, the children would be visiting his home in an apparently innocent way. It is unnecessary to detail the offences since it suffices to say that Carney J, an experienced criminal judge, regarded them as being among the worst he had ever seen and in addition was required to view photographs secreted in John Adams” dwelling. The offences to which John Adams pleaded guilty were a small number of offences and were regarded as being representative of the general conduct complained of in relation to the many dozens of counts in the indictment.
John Adams had a very bad criminal record. As outlined at the sentencing hearing before Carney J on 28 July 2003, he had convictions for larceny, malicious damage, no insurance, drunken driving, theft, false pretences, obtaining by deception and forgery. Some of these were in his native Belfast and some were in this jurisdiction. More relevantly in 1979 in Belfast he was convicted of two counts of child stealing and imprisoned for 18 months. In May 1987, at North Down Court, he was convicted of two indecent assault cases and of three cases of taking indecent photographs of children. In May 1997 he was convicted of 17 counts of forgery in Dundalk District Court.
Carney J sentence John Adams to life imprisonment. These were his sentencing remarks:
‘Pleas have been accepted to representative counts of unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual assault. I have regard in particular to the four volumes of photographs I was asked to look at. Three of them represent the worst that could be found in any hard-core magazine anywhere, and I am talking about the hard-core magazines that wouldn't even get into this country and one would only find abroad. That is how I would characterise these photographs. Many of them the victims were forced to take themselves.’
It seems to me that any sentence having regard to the appalling facts of this case less than one of life imprisonment would not be proportionate to what the Court is dealing with here. On each of the unlawful carnal knowledge counts I impose a sentence of life imprisonment. On the sexual assault counts I impose sentences of four years imprisonment. All sentences to run concurrently and to date from 4th August 1997. I declare the accused to be a sex offender pursuant to the provisions of the Sexual Offenders Act 2001, and having regard to the fact...
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