A man jailed for 20 years for the rape of a woman who underwent an "appalling ordeal" had his sentence reduced to 16 years at the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday. Anthony Cawley has been convicted of other serious offences since the 1986 rape.
The court rejected Cawley's appeal against the rape conviction but reduced the sentence after considering reports which disclosed his "appalling upbringing" by alcoholic parents with 13 other children.
Cawley (32), originally from Dun Laoghaire with a former address at Inchicore, Dublin, had been given the 20-year sentence in 1987 for the rape in 1986. In 1989, he received a concurrent 10-year sentence for attempted murder and in June 1998 he was sentenced to eight years for the prison rape of another sex offender. The Central Criminal Court decided the eight-year term was to run from May 2002 when the 20-year term for the rape offence ended. It also decided that his case would be reviewed in 2006, by which time he would have spent 20 years in custody.
Giving judgment on the appeal against the 1987 sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, Mr Justice Lynch, sitting with Mr Justice Geoghegan and Mr Justice Peter Kelly, said the court understood why the trial judge found it appropriate to impose a 20-year sentence.
At the time, the court had no probation or welfare report before it. The present court had such a report. It indicated that Cawley's upbringing was appalling. The report was obtained in 1998 because Cawley had committed a further offence, for which a sentence of eight years had been imposed.
That offence militated against the court reducing the 20-year sentence. However, having regard to Cawley's upbringing, it would give some leeway, bearing in mind that it would be open to criticism following the more recent offence in prison.
It would reduce the 20-year sentence to 16 years. It was a matter for the prison authorities, but if they allowed full reduction in the ordinary way, that would be reduced to 12 years, which would have expired just recently.
The eight-year sentence would then be operative. It was a matter for the prison authorities if there would be some remission of that.