A Meath man who is serving six years in consecutive sentences for sex assaults committed in 2003, has had the six-year suspended balance of a 12-year rape sentence imposed in 1998 reactivated by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Patrick Smith (40), from Oldcastle but now of no fixed abode, was given the 12- year sentence by Mr Justice Carney in May 1998 for two counts of anal rape and was also given a four-year concurrent sentence for one count of sexual assault.
Smith was convicted for these crimes in March 1998 after a six-day trial during which the jury heard evidence of offences from August 1996 to March 1997 in Dublin city and in Co Cavan, when the victim was seven years old.
Barrister Fergal Foley, for the DPP, said the Court of Criminal Appeal in November 1999 suspended the final six years.
Smith was notified in September 2001, before his release from Arbour Hill Prison, that he would be subject to the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 and he signed an acknowledgment of this.
He failed to comply with his release conditions, including notifying gardaí of changes of address. He had spent some time outside the jurisdiction but in June 2003, he was jailed for three months by Enniscorthy District Court for a public order offence.
Smith appealed and was granted High Court bail on conditions, including that he reside at Lattimore House, Co Meath, and sign on with the Garda. He failed to abide by the conditions.
He was arrested in August 2003 and charged at Youghal, Co Cork, with public order and indecency offences and released on bail. He was arrested two days later at Tramore, Co Waterford, in relation to reported sexual assaults. His bail was revoked by the High Court in August 2003 and he was remanded in custody.
Mr Foley said Smith was currently serving two consecutive sentences of three years each imposed on him by Judge Olive Buttimer at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court in December 2003 for sexual assault in Tramore.
David Kennedy SC, for Smith, submitted that he had been in custody since August 2003 and the DPP should have brought the application much earlier.
Mr Justice Carney said Smith had not taken the chance given to him when the Court of Criminal Appeal suspended the final six years of his sentence. He directed that the balance should be reimposed but he accepted there had been an "avoidable delay" in bringing the application and Smith would be given two years credit as a result of the State's failure.