A man convicted of raping a grandmother in a Belfast car park has had his nine-year sentence reduced.
Senior judges cut Lucasz Artur Kubik’s term by two years - half to be spent in jail and half on licence - after finding no evidence the attack on his victim (52) in January 2013 involved gratuitous violence.
Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan also held there was nothing to suggest a significant risk of Kubik (31) inflicting serious harm from similar offending.
“There was no material to indicate that this was other than a single impulsive act,” he said.
Kubik, originally from Poland, returned to the Court of Appeal to challenge his sentence after failing in an earlier attempt to overturn his conviction.
He was given a nine-year sentence after being found guilty of the rape and sexual assault of the victim, who was making her way home from a relative’s house.
She had gone to a taxi depot, which was closed, and then met a group of women and Kubik, who claimed to be a French man named Chris. The victim agreed to go to their house to call for a lift home as she had no phone credit.
As they walked the other women disappeared after Kubik shouted something at them in a foreign language, the court heard.
He then asked if the victim wanted to work for him, adding: “I’ll show you.”
At that stage he raped and molested her against a parked car, the court heard.
The victim told him she was a grandmother but he was said to have persisted with the sex attack before eventually running off.
Following his arrest Kubik, who has lived in Northern Ireland since 2006, denied any sexual contact with the victim. He then changed his account to allege the pair's encounter had been consensual, claiming he had not wanted his girlfriend to know.