![\"Dollymount](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1_Screenshot-2022-07-29-at-184211.png\")
<\/p>\nThe jury in the first trial, which was held in 2020, was unable to reach a verdict<\/p>\n
Dollymount Strand <\/p>\n
Lawyers for three men who “targeted” a vulnerable teenager and lured her into a car before driving her to Dollymount Strand where they gang raped<\/a> her have argued that they should have received shorter sentences because of their youth at the time.<\/p>\n Dion Genockey, Daryl Rooney and Troy Ryan were aged 17 and when they drove the then 18-year-old victim, who had grown up in care, to the end of a wooden bridge at the strand where they took turns raping her before abandoning her in a “dark and lonely place” three quarters of a kilometre from the main road.<\/p>\n Genockey (27) of Clarion Quay Apartments, Rooney (28) of Railway Street and Ryan (27) of Lower Gardiner Street, all in Dublin City Centre, raped the woman at Bull Island, Dollymount, Dublin<\/a>, on January 5, 2016. They were each convicted of rape following a second trial at the Central Criminal Court in March 2022.<\/p>\n The jury in the first trial, which was held in 2020, was unable to reach a verdict.<\/p>\n Dion Genockey, who has been jailed for raping a woman at Dollymount Strand, Dublin, back in January 2016(Image: Collins Courts)<\/p>\n Genockey was sentenced to nine years by Mr Justice David Keane while Ryan was sentenced to nine and a half years and Rooney was jailed for 10 years.<\/p>\n The sentencing court<\/a> heard none of the men accepted the verdict of the jury and maintained their innocence.<\/p>\n Opening an appeal against sentence yesterday, Genockey\u2019s senior counsel, Thomas O\u2019Malley argued the headline sentence of 15 years set by the trial judge was too high. He also contended the reduction given to the initial headline term was inadequate given the mitigating factors, including his client\u2019s youth, good work record, supportive family and lack of previous offending.<\/p>\n The Irish Mirror’s Crime Writers Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up<\/a> and get it delivered to your inbox every week<\/p>\n He noted aggravating factors included that it was a gang rape and that the victim was left at the scene. However, he said in his client\u2019s case the act itself wasn\u2019t accompanied by other aggravating factors such as “degradation or violence”.<\/p>\n He argued a headline sentence of 12 to 13 years would have been appropriate.<\/p>\n Counsel said the judge had given a discount of one third to the headline sentence after mitigation but argued “he could have given more”.<\/p>\n He said a body of knowledge developed over the past number of years suggesting that those under the age of 18 who commit offence are less deserving of punishment than an adult for a number of reasons, including their lack of capacity to think through their actions and the fact that they are “more susceptible to peer pressure”.<\/p>\n Ms Justice Nuala Butler said there was no evidence of immaturity in Genockey\u2019s case, noting he had made a decision to leave school early, had started a successful business and had a supportive family. She questioned what evidence there was of immaturity “other than his date of birth”.<\/p>\n Mr O\u2019Malley said those who commit offences while under the age of 18 who are sentenced as an adult “are categorically entitled to some reduction”.<\/p>\n Counsel argued the fact his client was a hard worker, had a good family background and was the parent of a young child were all factors that “would go to his credit” and questioned whether there had been a “sufficient reduction for these other factors”.<\/p>\n Seoirse \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing SC, representing Rooney, said he adopted Mr O\u2019Malley\u2019s submissions.<\/p>\n He also argued the judge was wrong not to consider suspending any portion of his client\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n He noted the judge had acknowledged cognitive impairment factors in Rooney\u2019s case. The barrister argued this reduced his client\u2019s culpability “to some extent”. He said there was “some mitigation” which he accepted “only goes so far”. There was “some basis for a very limited suspension” of a finite period, Mr \u00d3 D\u00fanlaing said.<\/p>\n John Berry SC, for Ryan, said he also wished to adopt his colleagues\u2019 submissions.<\/p>\n He said in this case, there was a “cumulative effect” because the headline term, had the defendants been adults, was “at the top end” and the discount for “a child\u2019s lack of maturity” was at the lowest level, leading to a headline sentence that was too high.<\/p>\n The Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin. (Image: Collins)<\/p>\n Addressing the question of rehabilitation and the possibility of suspending a portion of his client\u2019s sentence, Mr Berry acknowledged that the non-acceptance of guilt was “a massive difficulty”. However, he said the court must not lose sight of the fact that his client was aged 17 years and seven months at the time.<\/p>\n Mr Berry said there was a basis for a situation where a court should consider suspending some portion of the sentence “for societal good”.<\/p>\n He added: “Child offenders are recognised as having a far greater interest in rehabilitation than other offenders because they are not fully developed.”<\/p>\n Counsel suggested the judge had made an error because of the “diametrically opposed positions” of on the one hand saying “you can\u2019t have a suspended sentence because it\u2019s impossible to rehabilitate you” and on the other imposing a two year post supervision order to “incentivise rehabilitation”.<\/p>\n In response, Eilis Brennan SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the trial judge had given a carefully reasoned decision as to how he came to the headline sentence. She said he had also given “the maximum” discount on the basis of immaturity and submitted no error had been identified as she urged the court to refuse the appeal.<\/p>\n Ms Brennan highlighted the “appalling circumstances” of this case. It involved “significant planning”, counsel said, with a young boy used to “lure” the victim by telling her three lads wanted to talk to her.<\/p>\n The victim, who had grown up in care and had taken tablets on the day, initially said no but was eventually persuaded into the car and brought to Dollymount. Once there, the defendants “had sex with her sequentially” with one handing out condoms to the others.<\/p>\n On the way back, the men started to joke about “who had been the best at sex and who had the biggest penis,” counsel said.<\/p>\n The teenager was a “particularly vulnerable victim”, Ms Brennan said, and the three defendants had demonstrated “maturity and planning” with CCTV<\/a> showing them “clocking” the young woman as she came into the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n They “targeted” the victim before abandoning her at an isolated location at 10pm in “bleak midwinter” in a “dark and lonely place” three quarters of a kilometre from the main road, the barrister added.<\/p>\n She said the judge had imposed the post release supervision order “to protect the public” with a view to limiting “the risk of each man committing further offences” and to rehabilitate the defendants “if that is possible”.<\/p>\n She said there was no evidential basis for suspending any portion of the sentences imposed.<\/p>\n “Each showed no interest in pursuing victim focused work because not one of them accept the verdict,” she noted.<\/p>\n “When you look at sentence in the round for what happened in this case, I say it was a fair sentence,” the barrister added.<\/p>\n Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, sitting with Ms Justice Nuala Butler and Ms Justice Tara Burns, said the court would reserve judgment.<\/p>\n![\"Dion](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_JS282518024-1.jpg\")
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