2014-01-20
Reformed criminal will go back to jail after DPP appeals leniency of suspended sentence
Stage: Sentence
Plea: Not guilty
Outcome: Raymond O'Shea was sentenced to three-and-a-half years suspended by Judge Michael O'Shea at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court for the possession of a shortened shotgun and 131 shotgun cartridges. Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal, today (Monday) said the court could not hold that a wholly suspended sentence imposed on a man who had acquired, serviced and tested an unlawfully held sawn-off shotgun was anything other than unduly lenient and would accede to the Director's application.