DPP asked to appeal leniency of four-year term for rape and assault

The director of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, Ms Mary Crilly, yesterday called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal…

The director of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, Ms Mary Crilly, yesterday called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal the leniency of a four-year sentence handed down to a Cork man convicted of raping and assaulting a woman in the city in 2002.

Ms Crilly said the sentence Paul Buckley (32) received for the rape of the then 25-year-old woman in the garden of a house in a Cork suburb on April 8th, 2002, was far too lenient.

"I think the severity of the sentence needs to match the severity of the crime - I think in this case it was a vicious, brutal rape.

"There's no question about it - this was a young woman who was almost left to die, who was brutalised, raped and beaten up," said Ms Crilly.

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times