Teen rapist bail appeal denied

EXISTING legislation on the sentencing of children convicted of serious offences is not ‘defective’, a judge of the Court of Appeal said yesterday, before denying bail to a teenager detained just last week for raping his cousin.

Judge John Edwards also said that the Oireachtas has powers to amend the Children Act and that the courts remained ‘obliged to apply the law, as it is, without fear or favour’.

The teen, who cannot be named because he and the victim are still both minors, was 13 at the time of the offending, while his victim was aged seven.

The now 17-year-old was found guilty by a jury, following a trial earlier this year, of orally raping his female cousin.

He had pleaded not guilty to the rape but admitted four counts of sexually assaulting the girl on dates between October 1 and December 31, 2018.

At the Court of Appeal yesterday, Lorcan Staines SC, for the boy, applied for bail ahead of his upcoming sentence appeal and described the Act relevant to the case as ‘defective’.

Mr Staines said the trial judge, Karen O’Connor, had ‘insufficient tools’ at her disposal to avoid an immediate custodial sentence for the boy once he was found guilty.

Judge Edwards, presiding, said the Children Act represented the law and had the presumption of constitutionality – ‘even though it may be inconvenient to you [Mr Staines]’.

Eilis Brennan SC, for the State, said the trial judge did not mention any difficulty regarding suspending any portion of the detention when sentencing the boy. Counsel said that a headline sentence of eight years had been identified by the trial judge had the boy been an adult and that the one-year sentence amounted to ‘a discount of seveneighths’ with half discounted solely for his juvenile status.

In refusing the bail application, Judge Edwards said there was a ‘very clear view’ that the court had not been convinced by Mr Staines’s arguments.