Andrew Lacey’s manslaughter sentence increased after DPP appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal increased Andrew Lacey’s sentence for the manslaughter of Derek Reddin to six years and nine months, with no part suspended, on 1 March 2024.

Lacey pleaded not guilty to murdering Reddin. A ten-person jury acquitted him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter at Loughlinstown Drive on a date between 14 and 15 October 2019. The original sentencing proceedings were reported on 28 July 2023.

At the Central Criminal Court on 28 July 2023, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring imposed a seven-and-a-half-year sentence, suspending the final 18 months on condition that Lacey be of good behaviour for three years after release. He entered a €100 bond, and the sentence was backdated to 15 June 2023. The judge said the suspension reflected the difficulties his children would face during his absence.

The judge accepted that Reddin had attacked Lacey without warning and said Lacey was entitled to defend himself. She said producing a knife after an attack with a weapon was not in itself unreasonable, and gave Lacey the benefit of the doubt that the knife was in his jacket for work. But she found that Reddin had not used deadly force and that Lacey’s use of the knife was excessive and fatal.

On the DPP’s appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham said there was no evidential basis for suspending 20 per cent of the sentence because of the difficulties facing Lacey’s children. The court quashed the original sentence. Dominic McGinn SC, for Lacey, had argued that the original sentence was within the acceptable range.