People (Attorney General) v McClure
Jurisdiction | Ireland |
Court | Court of Criminal Appeal |
Judgment Date | 13 June 1945 |
Date | 13 June 1945 |
Court of Criminal Appeal.
Criminal law - Appeal against sentence - Charge of gross indecency - Offence admitted by accused - First offence - Accused a man of exceptionally high character - Medical evidence - Severity of sentence - Sentence reduced.
Criminal Appeal.
This was an application for leave to appeal against the sentence of fifteen calendar months imprisonment with hard labour which had been imposed upon the accused by the Circuit Court Judge (Judge Wyse Power) on a charge of gross indecency to which the accused had pleaded guilty.
After the accused had pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court, the following evidence was given.
Inspector Kingston, of the Civic Guard, testified that the accused came of a very respectable family and had never come under the notice of the police before. He stated that the accused had a wife and two children, one of whom was an invalid from birth.
John O'Hagan, Managing Director of the firm where the accused was employed, stated that he had known the accused for sixteen years and that he had been secretary of the firm for eleven years. He stated that he could say nothing except the very best about the accused and that when he (the Managing Director) was absent, the accused had full control, and blank cheques were left for him.
Dr. Francis McMenamin stated that he had examined the accused on three occasions, once in consultation with Dr. Dunne. He had found evidence of a very highly-strung hysterical type. The accused had given him an account of his movements on the evening to which the charge related
and had appeared to give a very full and candid account. The memory of accused was clear up to a certain period of the evening and then he appeared to have what he (Dr. McMenamin) considered a general amnesia. He did not regard this amnesia as feigned. He stated that accused told him that he usually took three or four bottles of stout, but that on the evening in question he took eight or nine whiskies. From investigation of the accused's mental state he formed the opinion that he was not a sexual psychopath. He stated that the accused told him that he had two children one of whom was an invalid and mentally defective; that he had brought the child during the previous year to numerous specialists who had told him that the child would neither live nor develop. Because of that he and his wife had...To continue reading
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P v Judges of the Circuit Court
...relevant, or proceed on the assumption that consent is irrelevant. So, for example, the sentencing decision in The People (AG) v McClure [1945] I.R. 275 is reported without any reference whatsoever to the other party to the incident. Attorney General v Scuffil [1936] I.R. 469 seems to hav......
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DPP v Lyons
...some degree where the offender acts out of character like the appellant did. O'Malley refers to The People (Attorney General) v. McClure [1945] I.R. 275 where leniency was extended following the consumption of a large amount of alcohol, the offence was out of character and the probation re......
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...which in turn may justify some mitigation. In a similar vein, the Irish Court of Criminal Appeal in People (Attorney General) v McClure [1945] I.R.275 accepted that the consumption of a large amount of whiskey to which the appellant was unaccustomed strengthened the view that the gross inde......