Rapist appeals 14-year term that State says is too lenient

A SERIAL sex offender is to appeal against the severity of his 14-year sentence for attacking women he met through the Tinder dating app, while the State will argue that it was too lenient.

Patrick Nevin, 38, attacked three women during their first meetings in the space of eleven days.

The sentencing judge, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon, heard that he had a preoccupation with sex and hostility towards women; he was at a high risk of re-offending.

Nevin had admitted raping one woman at Bellewstown, Co. Meath on July 12, 2014 and to sexual assault four days later of a second woman.

The father of two had been due to stand trial but changed his pleas to guilty following a legal ruling, which would allow the prosecution to introduce evidence from the other women describing sexual assault by Nevin on a first date.

Justice Creedon imposed a 14-year sentence on Nevin, previously of Meadowlands Court, Mounttown Road, Dún Laoghaire, but suspended the final two years. The prosecution contends that it is too lenient.

The computer programmer is also serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence imposed previously for the sexual assault of a third woman he met on Tinder.

This offence took place at the UCD campus on July 23, 2014, only weeks after the woman, who was Brazilian, had arrived in Dublin.

He had appealed that conviction, but subsequently withdrew it.

Mr Justice George Birmingham yesterday set July 30 as the date for Nevin’s appeal. Both appeals will be heard remotely on the same date in line with social distancing rules.