A MAN convicted of raping a woman while on release from prison has won an appeal against his nine-year jail term.
Senior judges in Belfast reduced James Taggart's sentence by two years after backing defence claims that the original period was manifestly excessive.
Taggart was aged 17 when he attacked the 19-year-old woman in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh in February 2012. Now aged 22 and with a former address at Kingsmere Gardens in Derry, he denied the attack and claimed the pair had consensual sex. However, a jury found him guilty of rape and common assault.
The crimes were committed while he was out on licence for a previous assault.
Imposing a nine-year prison sentence, followed by a further two years on licence, the trial judge cited the use of violence as one of the aggravating features.
But lawyers for Taggart argued that jail term was manifestly excessive and wrong in principle.
In a judgment delivered in January but only now published, the Court of Appeal that the starting point on the sentencing process had been too high.
Ruling that the starting point should have been five years, Lord Justice Weir said the degree of violence and Taggart being on home release when the offences were committed meant he should have received a seven-year term should have been imposed for the rape.
