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Morning Ireland: Orla O'Donnell, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports that Justice Nicholas Kearns says a guilty plea does not mean there must be a sentence reduction
In a judgment clarifying the law on sentencing in such cases, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns has said the fact of a guilty plea did not mean there must be a reduction in sentence.
Mr Justice Kearns was giving the unanimous judgment of the five-judge court in appeals by two men against life sentences imposed for 'horrific' rape offences.
One man, a former soldier in his 50s had pleaded guilty to 20 counts of sexual offences over an 11-year-period against two of his daughters and four of his nieces when they were young children.
The second man, a farmer from the west of Ireland, pleaded guilty to ten sample charges of rape and two of sexual assault against four of his daughters between 1976 and 1996.
