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Judge says sorry after jailing rapist for too long
(Filed: 01/03/2003)

An Old Bailey judge apologised to a violent rapist yesterday for the trauma he had caused him by sentencing him too harshly.

Recorder Robert Seabrook, QC, called Adam Levy back an hour after jailing him for nine years to cut the term by a third.

Describing the rape as abhorrent, the judge said he had given insufficient credit for Levy’s guilty plea as he reduced the term to six years.

“I publicly apologise for the trauma I have put you through today and hope I have some redress for that to have you back to deal with this matter today,” he said.

The court had been told that Levy, 32, a landscape gardener from County Kerry, Republic of Ireland, had attacked a 25-year-old tourist in south London in 1997.

Stifling her screams with a handkerchief, Levy dragged his Mexican victim, who was ony 4ft 10ins tall, out of view and raped her.

He was charged with the rape after being identified from a DNA sample which was taken when he was arrested for stealing a hanging basket outside a pub.

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