RULING AGAINST DPP ON SUSPENDED SENTENCE

Society could sometimes be better protected through the supervised
release, after treatment, of prisoners such as sex offenders and drug
addicts, rather than the later release of such offenders without any
treatment or supervision, a judge in the Court of Criminal Appeal said
yesterday.

Mrs Justice Denham, sitting with Mr Justice Geoghegan and Ms Justice
McGuinness, ruled that the court had jurisdiction to suspend a latter
part of a sentence on conditions set out in a programme of release.

The DPP had argued that the court had no such jurisdiction. He said
what was involved was a sentence review, for which only the High Court
had jurisdiction.

The court was dealing with an appeal by a man against a sixyear
sentence imposed in March 1997 for the rape of a woman. It was told
that the man had completed a programme of treatment and that release
under supervision would be more beneficial to him and to society than
would his unsupervised release at the end of sentence without any treatment.

Rejecting the DPP's argument, Mrs Justice Denham said that sentencing
was a complex matter which involved aspects of retribution,
deterrence, protection, reparation and rehabilitation.

There were important aspects in sexual offence cases relating to
protection of society and rehabilitation of the defendant.

In cases where there was drug or alcohol addiction, or dysfunctional
personal or family relationships, a treatment programme might prove
beneficial to the convicted person and to society by altering the
offender's future behaviour. The appellant had completed a treatment
programme which illustrated this.

In analysing sentence, the court had to consider the impact on the
victim. In the case involved, the victim had indicated that she would
not object to the sentence being reduced as long as the man did not
interfere with her or her children. While this was not a determinant
of the court's decision, it was an important factor.

The court was satisfied that it had jurisdiction to suspend the latter
part of a sentence on terms and conditions where the appellant was
under supervision.

The court adjourned a second issue as to whether circumstances existed
in the case to allow the court to order the suspension of the latter
part of the man's sentence on conditions in a release programme.