Sentence increased to four years in abuse case

A father of eight who videotaped himself having sex with a 15-year-old girl after plying her with alcopops and drugs the night she was celebrating her Junior Cert results has had his jail sentence increased from one to four years.

The Court of Criminal Appeal ruled the one year sentence imposed on Anthony Nagle involved a serious error in failing to reflect the "gross" and "serious" offences committed against a child a few months short of her 16th birthday.

The decision means Nagle, who was released from prison earlier this month, will have to return to prison to serve the additional time.

Nagle (48), Nicholas Square, Ballymacthomas, Cork, had admitted charges at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last June of having child pornography, producing child pornography and using a child for sexual exploitation in Cork between September 14th and October 17th, 2005.

Judge Patrick Moran jailed Nagle for two years, with the final 12 months suspended. The DPP appealed the sentence on grounds of undue leniency but Nagle was released earlier this month before the appeal was heard and decided earlier today.

The CCA, with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Daniel Herbert and Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, agreed with the DPP the original sentence was unduly lenient and replaced it with a seven year term, with the final three years suspended.

Mr Justice Finnegan said the court was suspending the last three years to take into account Nagle's early plea of guilty, his recent release from prison, his health and his unfortunate background. The sentence was also backdated to when Nagle first
went into custody for the offences.

Mr Justice Finnegan said the original two-year sentence was "seriously in error" given the nature of the offences.

Nagle knew the girl's mother who had texted Nagle, among several people, to congratulate her daughter on her Junior Cert results. Nagle did so and arranged to meet the girl. Nagle purchased purchased a large number of bottles of alcopops for her, of which she drank 12, and also gave her cannabis which she smoked.

The girl's mother later texted Nagle saying she was worried about her daughter, who was due home at 7pm, but Nagle had replied she was probably out with friends and would be okay.

The girl had ended up spending the night at Nagle's flat and he taped various sexual acts over several hours.

Mr Justice Finnegan said Nagle had taken advantage of the girl and had taped various sexual acts on a child aged 15 years. Gardaí later recovered a 31-minute tape with the girl's name and the date of the activities in a safe in Nagle's flat.

Marjorie Farrelly SC, for the DPP, had argued the trial judge had not fully assessed the gravity of the offences when imposing sentence. The maximum sentence for the possession charge was five years, while the maximum term for the sexual exploitation of a child was 14 years. The offences committed by Nagle were in the medium to high on the scale of seriousness.

Opposing the DPP's application, Blaise O Carroll SC, for Nagle, said the sentence was imposed by an experienced judge who took all the relevant factors into account. It was also accepted Nagle made the tape for himself and not to distribute or to sell to others.

Counsel also said Nagle had apologised in court for his actions, had been violently abused by his father as a child and was later sexually abused. He also suffered from health problems. Counsel argued Nagle's offences were much lower on the scale of seriousness than the DPP contended.