The Court of Criminal Appeal has ruled that a Central Criminal Court judge erred in principle when he imposed a non-custodial sentence on a man found guilty of raping a mother of three in her own home in 2005.

Adam Keane from Barnageeha, Daragh, Co Clare, had his sentence increase from three to ten years today following an appeal from the DPP.

The appeal court said today in its 28-page written judgment that the appeal of the leniency of the sentence by the DPP was well founded.
Advertisement

It said that the well-established principle that a custodial sentence be handed down for the offence of rape should have been followed.

The judgment also found that Mr Justice Paul Carney did not attach sufficient weight to the location and circumstances in which the rape took place.

Mary Shannon was raped as she slept in her own bed in May 2005, her three children also in the house at the time.

Originally he was found guilty of the rape but given a suspended sentence but did not even get home to the small town in which him and his victim lived with out breaking the conditions of his probation, by flicking a cigarette at his victim and making a “triumphalist gesture” at her. The judge did place any restriction on him in regurds to distancing himself from Mary Shannon.

No wonder there is such a low level of reporting to the garda / police in this country.
Out of all the sexual assulats and rapes the rape crises centers deal with less then 10% will
file a report, and out of that 10% only 5% will be taken to court, so that is .05% and the convictions rates are in Ireland some of the worse in Europe.