DPP has track record of challenging sentences

THE Director of Public Prosecutions, Claire Loftus, may decide to appeal against Tom Humphries’ two-and-a-half year prison sentence on grounds of ‘undue leniency’ under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993.

The DPP, who was appointed to the role in 2011, has a track record of challenging sentencing decisions where judges may have tipped the scales of justice too far in favour of the perpetrator.

As revealed by the Irish Daily Mail, her office began 2017 by initiating appeals against ‘unduly lenient’ sentences in a raft of recent criminal cases, including a violent bank worker who blinded a medical student in one eye in an assault with a pint glass.

In that case, Robert Jones, 26, of Glenview Park, Tallaght, Dublin, walked free from court in February 2016 with a fully suspended 18-month sentence – even though his offence carried a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

His victim, Trinity medical student Brian Murphy of Ennis Road, Limerick, was a quiet person who rarely went to nightclubs, the court heard. Three appeal judges agreed in April that the sentence was too lenient although they did not jail Jones at that stage.

Yesterday, Humphries’ lawyers indicated that he might lodge an appeal against his sentence within the next three weeks. Equally, the DPP could appeal against it too. In March, Humphries pleaded guilty to six sexual offences against a girl under the age of 17: two counts of defilement and four counts of child exploitation.

He faced a maximum sentence of five years for defiling the girl. But Judge O’Connor imposed a two-and-a-half year term on those charges, ruling that Humphries’ behaviour in that regard was at the ‘upper end of the mid-range of offending’. For the child exploitation and grooming charges, Humphries faced a maximum penalty of life in prison. On that front, Judge O’Connor imposed a further two-year sentence.

But as the two sentences will run concurrently, and taking into account remission and the backdating of his sentence when he went into custody on October 3, Humphries is due to be released by August 2019 at the latest.

Attempts to contact the DPP’s press office last night via phone and email were unsuccessful. The DPP can take leniency appeals on notice to those convicted and within 28 days of sentencing.

There have long been calls for guidelines for judges so sentencing can be more consistent across in the criminal courts.