The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will not be appealing the sentence imposed on former Irish Times sports writer Tom Humphries.
Humphries was jailed for two-and-a-half years for grooming a girl from when she was 14 years old before later sexually abusing her.
There was widespread criticism of the perceived leniency of the sentence handed down by Judge Karen O’Connor, with many calling on the DPP to use its powers under the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to refer it to the Court of Appeal.
The DPP had 28 days to lodge an appeal, a deadline which expired on Tuesday night with no appeal being lodged.
In rare circumstances the DPP can ask for a time extension of up to 56 days but that is not expected to happen in this case.
Despite the view of many commentators, including retired High Court judge Barry White, that the sentence would probably be appealed, lawyers with knowledge of the case believed an appeal was never likely.
“She might have come in slightly on the low side of the middle range of sentencing but there was no error in law that you could hang an appeal on,” said one person involved in the case.
“Her sentencing remarks were very comprehensive. They took into account all his pluses and minuses and didn’t seem to place too much emphasis on any one aspect.”
Another lawyer close to the case said: “You can’t just appeal because you don’t like it. The Director has to identify an specific area where the judge went wrong, like not paying enough attention to the harm done or giving too much credit for some mitigating factor. There was nothing like that in this case.”
In an interview published in The Irish Times earlier this week, retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness said she believes the sentencing judge "did that case very well".
“She actually approached that sentence completely along the proper guidelines,” said Judge McGuinness.
Much of the criticism centred on the sentencing judge’s comments that “it was hard not to have some sympathy” for Humphries given his fall from his former position as one of the country’s best known sports writers.
In her lengthy sentencing remarks, Judge Karen O’Connor said the offences deserved a “headline sentence” of four years in prison. However, after taking into account mitigating factors including Humphries’s previous “high profile” and his fall from that position, she reduced this by 18 months.
“It would be difficult not to have sympathy for him. That’s not to excuse his behaviour,” Judge O’Connor said.
“It’s something of a truism to say the higher the profile and success of a member of society the greater the fall.”
Judge O’Connor also took into account Humphries’s mental and physical health issues both now and at the time of offending.
However, she rejected a defence submission that he was suffering from a “neuro-cognitive” disorder that might have impaired his judgement at the time of offending.
She said the most important mitigating factor was Humphries’s guilty plea but noted this came late in the day, meaning the case dragged out for years.
She also took into account character references from David Walsh, chief sports writer with the Sunday Times, and from Cork hurling star Donal Óg Cusack, as well as references from his family.
She said the most relevant aggravating factor was the effect the offending had on the injured party.
Judge O’Connor noted the victim suffered from feelings of guilt, shame and self hatred and that she lost her passion for GAA.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court previously heard Humphries exchanged at least 16,000 text messages with the girl during a three-month period leading up to March 2011 as part of the grooming process. He met up with her on five occasions during which sexual acts took place.
Humphries (54), from Sutton, north Dublin, pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement of a child in Dublin between December 5th, 2010, and February 19th, 2011, and four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene or indecent act between January 2010 and March 2011.
Humphries had not written for The Irish Times since 2011 and was let go from the newspaper after pleading guilty to sexual offences charges last March.
