Serial sex offender sentence cut

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A serial sex offender has had his jail sentence cut by five years, even though appeal court judges accepted he posed a major risk to women and children.

Patrick McColgan, of O'Kane Terrace, Strabane, was jailed for 20 years in April 2005 for falsely imprisoning a woman and indecently assaulting her.

Days earlier, he had been released from jail where he was serving a sentence for attempting to rape a child.

The Appeal Court said the trial judge's increased sentence was not appropriate.

The trial had been told McColgan had 421 previous convictions for offences including rape and indecent assault.

We are not unmindful of the substantial risk that this offender presents but we consider that a protective element of 12 years is excessive Appeal judge At the trial, the judge had applied a 150% "uplift" to the starting point of eight years for false imprisonment.

McColgan had enticed a woman into his car, then locked the doors and drove her to Gortin, where he kissed her before knocking her head on the steering wheel.

The woman, then aged 25, eventually managed to escape, making her way over barbed wire fences and across fields until she reached a farmhouse.

She was left suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and fearful for her own security.

Lord Justice Campbell, reading a judgement written by the Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr, said the judge was wrong to apply a percentage uplift to the commensurate sentence in order to determine the protective element of the sentence.

"This, we believe, led to his selection of a greater sentence for this element than was appropriate," said Lord Justice Campbell, sitting with Lord Justice Sheil.

"We are not unmindful of the substantial risk that this offender presents but we consider that a protective element of 12 years is excessive, especially since this was imposed on the false imprisonment charge."

The judges reduced the 20-year sentence to 15.

It will begin in April 2008, after McColgan serves the remainder of a sentence for which he was out on licence.