Man's jail term increased after DPP appeal

A man convicted of serious sex assaults on three prostitutes and of falsely imprisoning a fourth woman will now serve 12 years…

A man convicted of serious sex assaults on three prostitutes and of falsely imprisoning a fourth woman will now serve 12 years in prison following a successful appeal by the DPP that the man's original nine-year sentence was unduly lenient.

Robert Melia was said to be "a very disturbed and dangerous man" who was part of "a very alienated delinquent sub group" which had made suicide pacts with each other.

Melia (35), Kilmore Road, Coolock, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to three charges of aggravated sexual assault and false imprisonment against three women on September 28th, October 19th and 21st, 1997. He also admitted robbing cash and other property from the prostitutes in the Wilton Terrace and Benburb Street areas of Dublin.

He pleaded guilty to hijacking the car of a fourth woman in the Phibsboro area of Dublin early on November 1st, 1997, and kidnapping her. He was sentenced last January to nine years' imprisonment, with the last year suspended.

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Melia - who is single and unemployed - had a number of previous convictions. The most serious of those was rape, for which he was sentenced to six years on July 30th, 1991.

According to a probation report submitted to the Central Criminal Court in January 1998, Melia was part of a "very alienated delinquent sub group" in his local area. Melia himself came from a stable and relatively comfortable family background but the "sub group" of which he was a part had made suicide pacts with each other, the report said. Some had succeeded in carrying out suicide and Melia had made several attempts on his own life.

Melia was a heavy drinker who had taken heroin and cannabis and was "a very disturbed and dangerous man". The pattern of his offending and the intense violence of the most recent offences would indicate he was "a very serious risk to public safety", the report added. His inability to recall any details of the offences compounded the concerns about the likelihood of re-offending.

Delivering the Court of Criminal Appeal's judgment yesterday on the DPP's appeal regarding the sentence imposed on Melia, Mr Justice Keane - sitting with Mr Justice O'Donovan and Mr Justice O'Higgins - said the court was satisfied that the nine-ear sentence could not be said to reflect the gravity of the offencesto which Melia had pleaded guilty.

The conclusion was inevitable that the sentence erred on the side of undue leniency and constituted a substantial departure from the norm, he said.

It was beyond argument that each of the offences of aggravated sexual assault committed by Melia were extremely serious, the judge added. The prostitute victims were in a particularly vulnerable situation and were subjected to a frightening and degrading experience, accompanied by the infliction of violence or the threat of violence, which had a traumatic effect on them.

Although the fourth woman was not sexually assaulted, she suffered a horrifying experience and, not surprisingly, it had had a serious effect on her life. If Melia was being sentenced in respect of one only of these offences, he would inevitably have received a reasonably significant custodial sentence.

A sentence of nine years, even with the final year suspended, was undoubtedly such a sentence. But the court was satisfied it could not be said to reflect the gravity of the entirely separate offences of aggravated sexual assault and false imprisonment to which Melia had pleaded guilty.

The Court of Criminal Appeal ordered that Melia served a term of 12 years dating from August 27th, 1998.