Jail term cut for abuse of young girl

A man from Claremorris in County Mayo has had his prison sentence reduced following a successful appeal against its severity. Mark Walsh, now aged 32, was originally sentenced to five years imprisonment, with the final year suspended, at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court in October 2019 after pleading guilty to six counts of sexual assault against a young girl committed between 2006 and 2010. The Court of Appeal today reduced his sentence to four years imprisonment with the final year suspended. The three-judge panel found that the sentencing judge had failed to adequately consider Walsh's age at the time of the offences, when he was between 17 and 18 years old. The court also determined that the headline sentence of six years had been set too high and that significant mitigating factors had not been properly weighed. Walsh's sentence is now to be suspended for a period of three years.