Significant sentencing guidance issued by the Court of Appeal for sexual assault offences means a man who sexually abused his stepdaughters faces having his four-year sentence increased.
The guidance placed Gerard Nevin’s offences in the upper range of gravity, attracting a headline sentence of between nine and 14 years rather than the headline sentence of three to six years applied by the sentencing judge, the three-judge appeal court said.
Nevin will be resentenced on December 4th after the court hears legal submissions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in light of the new guidance.
The guidance outlines sentencing bands and factors to be considered for sexual assault cases.
RM Block
Combined with other sentencing guidance judgments, the decision is expected to lead to great clarity and consistency regarding sentencing for sexual assault.
Lawyers for the DPP will be expected, when making future sentencing submissions, to outline the director’s view on which band the particular offence falls into.
The DPP had appealed as unduly lenient the effective four-year term imposed at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Nevin (42), of Grove Park, Rathmines, Dublin, after he admitted 22 counts of sexual assault of his stepdaughters between 2012 and 2020.
In November 2024, Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin imposed a global sentence of six years on Nevin, with the final two years suspended. The court heard he was in a new relationship.
Nevin’s stepdaughters, Catalina Grancea and Alexa Grancea, waived their right to anonymity to allow him to be named. Catalina Grancea was aged between eight and 16, and her sister Alexa was aged between seven and 15 when the abuse, including touching and sucking the girls’ breasts, occurred.
Delivering the Court of Appeal judgment, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said these offences fell into the upper range of gravity for reasons including their impact, frequency and duration, and the fact that they involved children and Nevin was in a position of trust.
The offences were reported when one girl began a relationship with a boy her own age and became upset by physical contact, he said. The girls’ victim-impact statements laid out the lasting effect of persistent abuse on the lives of children.
These offences required a headline sentence in the upper band of nine to 14 years, he said. On no assessment could a headline sentence of three to six years “be considered appropriate”, he said.
On the basis of the Court of Appeal’s new analysis, which was not available to the trial judge, her approach did not meet the gravity of the offences and there would be a fresh sentencing hearing, he concluded.
Mr Justice Charleton said the upper band of seven to 10 years for sexual assault of adults, and nine to 14 years for sexual assault of children, must be considered the headline sentence for offences deemed in the upper range of gravity.
Such offending incorporates culpability of conduct and effect on victims and tends to involve persistent violations of trust, a series of offences, targeting of children or vulnerable people, gross and damaging intrusions and psychological damage.
The headline for middle-range sexual assaults typically, but not necessarily, ranges between three and six years, he said. Such offences included where a woman was digitally penetrated by her partner against her wishes.
Custodial sentences in the lower range may span 18 months to three years and some such offences may not involve a custodial sentence. One case deemed within the lower range involved a man sentenced to 2½ years. He and a woman had consensual sex after being out socialising. She woke up later to find him on top of her, groping her, and she asked him to stop, and he did.
