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29th July 2023
03:48pm BST
Conor McGregor has expressed his outrage at the sentence handed down to a man convicted of raping a boy.
On Friday, the man who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, was jailed for seven years at the Central Criminal Court after admitted one count of anal rape, five counts of sexual assault and one count of production of child pornography on dates between January 2014 and February 2015.
The man was 18 at the time of the crime. The victim was 10.
After executing a search warrant at the man's house in Munster, police recovered three Apple devices - a laptop, iPad and iPhone - on which included a video of the accused committing the rape in his bedroom, the Irish Times reported.
Sharing a Court News Ireland version of the story, McGregor tweeted that the case was "despicable" and called for a reform of Ireland's justice system "and how we punish crime".
"Are you kidding me," the former UFC champ wrote.
"This is suck. Life without parole is the minimum here. Death penalty the ideal, and least costly on the state. Who has the power to change this?"
The Irish Times report noted that the accused had assaulted the boy on a number of occasions and at various locations and that he was in possession of a cache of explicit images and videos involving adult males engaging in sexual activity with young boys aged between five and 14 years, some showed children bound and in a distressed state. 18,000 instant message conversations were also found, detailing requests for content the man had made.
The court heard the man kept to himself and spent most of his time on his Xbox, and that he was from a hard-working family who were shocked by what had taken place.
The Times report noted that the it was the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)’s view that the man's offending falls into the more serious category, meriting a headline sentence of ten to 15 years.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Tony Hunt agreed with the DPP. He added that the most significant aggravating factor was the recording of the rape by the accused and the age disparity between him and his victim.
In mitigation, he considered the accused’s age at the time of the offending; his personal circumstance and immaturity; his early guilty plea; and his apology in open court.
Mr Justice Hunt sentenced the accused to eight years in prison, with the final year suspended on the count of rape backdated from when he went into custody.
Three minutes after his tweet on the case, McGregor highlighted the sentences held down to three men who attacked security personnel guarding a repossessed farmhouse in Roscommon. Each was sentenced to 15 years.
McGregor said the case was "flabbergasting", and expressed his frustration at the judicial system, adding: "Enough!"
He wrote: What would be the process to change our system here? President? Taoiseach? Who makes something like this happen? The system is ridiculous at present. I think every single sane Irish mind is in agreement here."
The Irish Sun reported that Martin O’Toole, 59 , PJ Sweeney, 44, and Paul Beirne, 57, were found guilty in June of 15 charges in relation to the incident at Falsk, Strokestown on December 16, 2018, including aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage to a door of a house.
The trio were also found guilty of false imprisonment of, and assault causing harm, to Ian Gordon, Mark Rissen, John Graham, and Gary McCourtney and further convicted of three counts of arson in relation to three vans and to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by causing or permitting an animal to be struck on the head.
Judge Martina Baxter, the Irish Sun reported, said the “mob” arrived at the property during the early hour of the morning, armed with weapons, to “make a point about repossession” and to “terrify the security men” to ensure they never came back.
The Sun further reported that there was heckling and shouting in court as the sentences were handed down with one person shouting, “what a joke” and another saying “you should ashamed of yourself judge."
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