A former priest who was sentenced to an additional five years for the “predatory” rape and abuse of a schoolboy over 20 years ago – having previously been jailed for 19 years for similar offences relating to three other victims – has had his most recent jail term halved on appeal.
Denis Nolan (71) formerly of The Presbytery, Rathnew, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of oral rape and 36 counts of sexual assault on dates between 1994 and 2000 at locations in Dublin and Wicklow. Nolan was aged between 42 and 48 at the time of the offending, while the victim was between 11 and 17 years old.
The court heard the abuse included inappropriate touching, fondling, masturbation and oral rape.
Nolan has been in custody since 2014 and was serving three sentences totalling 19 years, for sexual offending against three other complainants, when the additional five-year term was imposed, giving an anticipated release date of March 2032.
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Mr Justice Paul McDermott had set a headline sentence of eight years in respect of the rape charge but reduced this to five years to run consecutive to his other sentences, noting that the court had to “face the reality” of the offender’s age and recognise that a sentence of eight years would see Nolan in his early 80s upon his eventual release.
He also handed Nolan concurrent sentences of three years on the sexual assault charges and directed Nolan to undergo five years post-release supervision.
Quashing the five-year sentence at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday and proceeding to resentence Nolan to two and a half years imprisonment, Mr Justice John Edwards described Nolan’s offending as “egregious” and said it had had a “highly destructive impact” on the victim’s life.
He said the court agreed with the trial judge that the offending against the victim should be “separately and individually” marked and that there could be no question of Nolan receiving a “free pass” in respect of it.
What the three-judge court had to consider, he said, was whether the “add on” of five years was an appropriate one.
He said a “significant factor” in the court’s consideration was that had Nolan been sentenced “all at the one time” for this matter and the matters which for which he is already serving a jail term, it was unlikely that the cumulative sentence would have been five years greater than the 19-year aggregate term he is currently serving.
Mr Justice Edwards said the court was of the view that the sentencing judge’s adjustment for proportionality in the application of the totality principle was “somewhat insufficient” and represented an error in the circumstances of the case.
He found that while there would have been “some uplift” in the overall sentence, the ultimate aggregate sentence, however structured, would not have been as high as 24 years and would have been closer to 21 or 22 years.
In resentencing Nolan, the judge nominated a headline sentence of 12 years with a discount of one third leaving a post mitigation sentence of eight years in prison.
Having regard to the totality principle and also showing “some modest mercy” towards Nolan, although he had shown “little enough to his victims”, Mr Justice Edwards said the court would adjust the eight-year term downwards by five and a half years, meaning Nolan will be required to serve an additional two and a half years in prison.
He said this gave an adjusted overall sentence of 21 and a half years imprisonment with the two and a half year “add on” to commence from when the 19-year sentence finishes.
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