Violent rapist fails to have jail term reduced
A convicted arsonist who tied a belt around a woman’s neck and threatened to kill her during a violent rape lasting more than two hours has today failed in an appeal against the severity of his seven-year sentence.
The Court of Criminal Appeal this morning determined there had been no error in principle in sentence of seven years with 18 months suspended imposed on James Kelly (aged 32) for counts of rape, anal rape and oral rape against the now 37-year-old woman.
Kelly, of Willow Wood View, Hartstown, had pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial to the raping the woman at a Dublin apartment on April 4, 2007.
He has 19 previous convictions and was serving a four-year jail term for causing €490,000 worth of damage to a building in an arson attack when he was then jailed for rape.
The father-of-three, who had been attending a back-to-education course in Maynooth College at the time, later told a psychologist that he regularly prayed for his victim and had turned to religion in an attempt to get his life back on course.
The court heard that Kelly had been drinking beer with his victim when he grabbed her by her hair and orally raped her before tying his belt around her neck and raping her. He then pushed her head into the carpet and forced her to have anal sex.
The woman later described to gardaí how she had been in fear for her life and Kelly had threatened to kill her. She was later treated in hospital for multiple bruises to her body including a large bruise across her eye and another on the bridge of her nose.
Presiding judge Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan said that the discount afforded to Kelly by the sentencing judge for his plea of guilty and remorse was “certainly adequate, if not tending toward the generous side”.
Counsel for Kelly, Mr James O’Brien SC, told the court that Kelly had attended a garda station voluntarily in the aftermath of the attack, where he made “comprehensive admissions” to detectives.
He argued that Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy had failed to properly reflect this matter, as well as Kelly’s remorse and his plea of guilty, in the ultimate sentence imposed.
Mr O’Brien said that a psychiatric report attested that Kelly “could not believe what he had done” and detailed how he had been dealing with drug and alcohol addiction and a dysfunctional family since he was aged 14.
Ms Rosario Boyle SC, for the State, said it was accepted that Kelly’s plea of guilty was of value but submitted that an earlier plea would have saved the DPP the considerable cost of having to mount a rape prosecution.
She said the deductions granted by Mr Justice McCarthy for each of the mitigating factors did not represent an error in principle.
