Ms Justice McGuinness defends sentencing regime for sex offenders

Retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness has rejected criticism of short prison sentences for sex offenders, saying that prison is ineffective in rehabilitating them.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Justice McGuinness said sex offenders should “absolutely” receive punishment, but long jail sentences served little purpose.

She said: “There are so many criticisms of sentencing and it’s always from a hang-em and flog-em point of view. No one ever says you should give them a lighter sentence.

“They never think about the way you have to approach sentencing and the things you have to take into account.”

Responding to criticism of the sentence in a specific case – the two-and-a-half-year sentence for ex-journalist Tom Humphries following his conviction of child sex abuse offences – she said that Judge Karen O’Connor had handled that case “very well”.

Ms Justice McGuinness added: “She actually approached that sentence completely along the proper guidelines.

“That man, his life has totally been destroyed too. I mean, of course he shouldn’t have been doing what he did. But his life is completely destroyed too. Jail is neither here nor there to some extent.

“For sexual offenders I don’t think jail does them much good anyway.”

Elsewhere in her interview with the newspaper, she backed the abolition of jury trials in defamation cases, criticised the Government’s reform of judicial appointments, and said she had never personally experienced sexual harassment in her career as a barrister.