Top judge rebuked over rape case court remarks
PAUL Carney, Ireland's leading rape and murder judge, has received a rebuke from the Court of Criminal Appeal.
It came after a rapist claimed the judge had publicly repudiated the appeal court's authority.
Yesterday a man who kidnapped and raped a Spanish au pair had his lengthy prison sentence reduced after Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding as part of the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal, said Judge Carney's comments were "simply indefensible".
In the Central Criminal Court, Judge Carney had imposed a 15-year sentence, with the final 18 months suspended, after David Mullen pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of the then 23-year-old victim as well as rape, oral rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, and robbery at Library Road, Dun Laoghaire, on April 9, 2005.
But yesterday that sentence was reduced by the CCA to 14 years with the final four years suspended after Mullen (30), from Knockmore Crescent, Tallaght, and Tymon Hall Park, Kingswood, both Dublin, appealed the severity of the sentence.
Mullen complained that Judge Carney's comments were "inappropriate" and argued, through senior counsel Patrick Gageby , that Judge Carney had erred in principle by publicly repudiating the Court of Criminal Appeal's authority.
During sentencing, Mr Justice Carney said the case was "too important to rush because the DPP wants to do it on the cheap".
He also stated that he [Mr Justice Carney] was the person who "is attacked behind his back in another place" and that Mullen's lawyer has "persuaded the Court of Criminal Appeal to make some exotic findings in relation to me [Judge Carney]".
Mr Gageby said the comments might lead a neutral observer to think that there was bias in the sentence; that justice was not being seen to be done, that the judge felt the need to publicly air a difficulty he had with counsel in the case as a legitimate part of the sentencing process.
It might also appear to the observer that the 15-year sentence was given contrary to the authorities of the CCA, he said.
Yesterday the CCA agreed, stating that Judge Carney's remarks were "simply indefensible", "irrelevant, inappropriate and personalised".
- Tim Healy and Dearbhail McDonald
