Future employment of people guilty of serious crimes of ‘limited concern’ when sentencing, judge says

The future employment prospects of a convicted person are of “limited concern” to a sentencing court when dealing with serious cases, a Central Criminal Court judge said on Monday when jailing a man found guilty of raping a young woman with a bottle.

The comments by Mr Justice Tony Hunt, when jailing the man for nine years, with the final year suspended, came just three weeks after intense controversy over the fully suspended three-year sentence given to soldier Cathal Crotty for assaulting Natasha O’Brien and knocking her unconscious.

Judge Tom O’Donnell, in the Circuit Criminal Court in Limerick, mentioned Crotty’s employment when delivering his sentence. While strongly condemning the attack, Judge O’Donnell said he had no doubt but that if he imposed an immediate jail sentence on Crotty his army career would be over. The decision led to protests and a debate in the Dáil that Ms O’Brien watched from the visitors’ gallery.

The Director of Public Prosecutions on Friday launched an appeal against the three-year suspended sentence, on the grounds of undue leniency.

[ DPP appeals Cathal Crotty’s suspended sentence for Limerick assault ]

[ Naming of rapist Jonathan Moran has brought ‘great comfort’, Bláthnaid Raleigh says ]

In a sentencing decision on Monday in the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Hunt jailed Jonathan (Johnny) Moran, of Tower View, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, for the 2019 rape in Galway of Bláthnaid Raleigh. Both were aged 21 at the time.

Referring to an employment reference for Moran, which had been withdrawn, Mr Justice Hunt said he was not sure of the extent to which a sentencing court should consider the future employment of people convicted of serious crime.

People, he said, should not get too “carried away” with the notion that sentencing courts paid significant attention to employment references. A person’s previous good behaviour “goes up in smoke” when they are before the court on serious charges.

Mr Justice Hunt also addressed the issue of consent, saying people engaging in sexual activity should bear in mind that “if you put your foot on the wrong side of the law” the consequences are very serious.

[ ‘I am handing the shame back to you’: Woman raped with bottle left with serious physical injuries, court told ]

The trial heard Ms Raleigh had gone to a garden shed with Moran after meeting him at the Galway Arts Festival. Once inside the shed, Moran had attacked her. Ms Raleigh waived her right to anonymity so Moran could be named.

In a separate case, also on Monday, Mr Justice Hunt jailed a 36-year-old doctor found guilty of raping his wife in their home.

The man, the judge said, “failed to grasp the essentials and basics of consent” and appeared to believe “marriage carries some kind of blanket consent to whatever he wants to have in terms of sexual activity”.

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