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A decision to reduce a serial rapist's life sentence to 13 years sparked fury last night.
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland said it highlighted the failure of the Irish legal system in dealing with sex crimes.
In a strong attack on the decision by the Court of Criminal Appeal, the network said the sentence failed to address the fact that Gerard Kelly was a serial rapist at the highest risk of re-offending.
Kelly had previously been jailed for a total of 18 years in Ireland and England on rape charges. The Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) reduced a life sentence imposed on Kelly (46) to 16 years, with the final three years suspended.
Kelly, of no fixed abode, had been handed down a life sentence by Mr Justice Paul Carney in January 2007 for the aggravated sexual assault of a woman in September 2004.
She had been walking to a friend's house when she was grabbed by Kelly, who pushed her into waste ground telling her if she made a noise he would "slice her".
He had threatened that if she told anyone about the incident he would burn down her family home and indicated he knew her address and family members.
Kelly said he had committed the crime so he could be taken back into prison custody. But the CCA said the sexual assault committed by Kelly was "not of the exceptional nature that it merited the imposition of a life sentence".
During the appeal yesterday, Kelly's lawyers argued that Mr Justice Carney had erred by imposing a life sentence after Kelly had pleaded guilty to the offence. They also said that the "exception circumstances" which merit the maximum sentence did not exist in this case.
The DPP argued that Mr Justice Carey had imposed an "appropriate sentence". The CCA reduced the sentence and also imposed a 10-year post-release supervision on Kelly.
Shocking
Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, who was presiding in the CCA yesterday, admitted the circumstances of the crime were "very shocking".
However, he said it was the court's view the imposition of a life sentence amounted to an error in principle.
The offence had been committed just five months after Kelly had completed a 10-year rape sentence. He had been jailed for the rape of a pregnant teenager at a football club ground at Rochestown Avenue, Dublin, on November 2, 1997.
Prior to that, he had been jailed in 1987 for eight years in England for rape and aggravated burglary. The RCNI last night branded it "unacceptable" that a serial rapist, who continued to be assessed as very high-risk for re-offending, was released back into the community.
Although 13 years was a substantial sentence, it said, it had failed to address the fact that Mr Kelly was a serial rapist and at the highest risk of re-offending.
Patricia McDonagh, and Jim Healy, Irish Times
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ŠIndependent.ie
