THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment in the case of a convicted armed robber appealing against his life sentence for the rape and sexual abuse of a girl over an eight-year period.
Christopher Griffin (41) was jailed for life by Mr Justice Paul Carney in April 2007, after a Central Criminal Court jury found him guilty of one count of the oral rape of the victim in 1998, one count of rape in 2001 and nine counts of indecently assaulting her on dates between 1993 and 1998.
The victim, aged between eight and 16 when the abuse took place, consented to having Griffin named in media reports of the trial.
Griffin, with a last address at Ridgewood Green, Swords, had pleaded not guilty to the charges. He lost an appeal against his conviction at the Court of Criminal Appeal on June 22nd, 2009.
Counsel for Griffin, Michael O’Higgins SC, said that although this was a case of an “appalling nature”, Mr Justice Carney had erred “very substantially” in imposing a life sentence as “nowhere on the facts” outlined did it warrant such a term.
He said the abuse did not involve any overt threats or acts of violence, that Griffin appeared to have provided financial support for the victim and there was no suggestion that he was “hovering over” her as a threatening figure.
Mr O’Higgins said Mr Justice Carney erred in describing the list of 18 previous convictions amassed by Griffin as “horrendous” in circumstances where many of them were summarily dealt with in the District Court.
Of his previous convictions, 13 were summary offences committed when he was a child, and the sentencing judge should have attached a “significantly lesser” weight to these, he said.
He said both the trial and the sentence hearing took place in a “charged atmosphere” in the remand court beside Cloverhill prison because of events happening in the north inner city area.
Counsel for the State, Deirdre Murphy SC, told the court the evidence was that the abuse started off at the “grooming” stage and moved on to repeated sexual assaults of a young girl over eight years. She submitted there were no mitigating factors in the case, as Griffin did not co-operate with gardaí, did not submit to psychological assessment and continued to deny the offences.
Mr Justice Nial Fennelly said the court would reserve its judgment.