A convicted rapist will find out next month if the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appeal against his fully suspended sentence has been successful.

Magnus Meyer Hustveit was spared a custodial sentence, after admitting to having sex with his ex-girlfriend while she slept in their Dublin apartment.

At the sentence hearing last July, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy described this case as "exceptional" and one that would not have emerged without the confessions of Hustveit - a reference to an e-mail sent to Niamh Ní Dhomhnaill that led to his prosecution.

He accepted the repeated rape and sexual assault of his then girlfriend was a "serious offence" but suspended a seven year sentence in full after taking all the mitigating factors into account.

Today, Counsel for the DPP argued the suspension was "unduly lenient" and claimed too much weight was given to his cooperation and guilty plea, and not enough on the effect his actions have had on his victim.

In defending the decision, Hustveit's barrister quoted the words of former Chief Justice Thomas Finlay who once said a departure from a substantial immediate custodial sentence for rape would only be justified where there were "wholly exceptional circumstances".

A judgement is due next month.