DPP v G

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: FINLAY C.J.
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1994
• Neutral Citation: 1993 WJSC-SC 3440
• Docket Number: [S.C. No. 353 of 1991]
• Court: Supreme Court
• Date: 01 January 1994

1993 WJSC-SC 3440

THE SUPREME COURT

Finlay C.J.

O'Flaherty J.

Egan J.

Blayney J.

Denham J.

353/91

DPP v. G

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v.

G.

Citations:

CRIMINAL LAW (RAPE) ACT 1981 S2(1)

DPP, PEOPLE V TIERNAN 1988 IR 250

Synopsis:

CRIMINAL LAW

Sentence

Imprisonment - Duration - Mitigation - Factors - Guilt - Admission - Conviction on twelve counts of rape - Abuse of young girls by male babysitter aged 19 years - Accused abused sexually when a child - Sentences of penal servitude for life reduced to sentences of penal servitude for fifteen years - (353/91 - Supreme Court - 11/11/93) - [1994] 1 I.R. 587

|The People v. G.|

1 JUDGMENT delivered on the 11th day of November 1993by FINLAY C.J. [NEM DISS]

2 This is an appeal brought by the accused against sentence only in respect of an order made by Carney J. in the Central Criminal Court convicting him on a plea of guilty to twelve counts of rape contrary to common law and as provided for by section 2(1) of the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981, and imposed upon him twelve concurrent sentences of penal servitude for life.The twelve counts on the indictment were described by counsel for the prosecution at the hearing in the Central Criminal Court, and accepted by the accused, for the purpose of the sentencing procedure, to be representative counts in relation to conduct which had occurred between him and three young girls between the years 1982 and 1988 when the girls were, respectively, between six and twelve years of age. In a full statement the accused admitted to something over four hundred occasions on which he had either sexually interfered with or raped these three children. Two of the children were his nieces and the third was a neighbour's child. The incidents all took place while he was babysitting. The accused is now thirty years of age. The incidents first came to light when one of the victims informed her parents in March 1990, and on further investigation the interference with the other victims was revealed. Upon being interviewed for the first time in June of 1990 the Appellant made full disclosure in a lengthy statement voluntarily givenby him to the Garda Siochana and added some further details in a further statement some weeks later. He was arrested and charged with the offences pursuant to his own statements in March of 1991, and very shortly thereafter he made it clear that he intended to plead guilty to the offences with which he was charged. He gave to his counsel upon the hearing of the issues with regard to sentence specific instructions not to contest any issues of fact.

3 There was evidence before the court, which the learned trial judge accepted, that the Applicant himself as a child had been grossly and seriously sexually abused, and lead by certain individuals into perverse sexual conduct.

4 In the course of his ruling leading up to the imposition of the twelve concurrent sentences of penal servitude for life the learned trial judge stated as follows:

5 "Now I have an obligation to take various matters into account. One is normally concerned with punishment for offences, but as I indicated to the accused's father that in the context of this case it is not a particular consideration of mine because I have so many other major matters to concern myself with. I have the protection of society to concern myself with - the protection of other persons. I have a duty towards the accused to take account of such factors as operate in his favour and in this case there are, in fact, several. He has pleaded guilty. He...