Brandon Power’s resentencing adjourned after appeal over garda assault

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

The Court of Appeal adjourned Brandon Power’s resentencing to 13 December 2021 after it was told an up-to-date probation report was unavailable. The proceedings were reported on 12 October 2021.

Power pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Trevor Devereux. On 11 April 2019, Judge Terence O’Sullivan gave him a one-year sentence suspended for 12 months.

Power was being sentenced on another matter at Wicklow Circuit Court on 31 March 2018 when he lashed out and bit Garda Devereux’s finger, breaking the bone. At the sentence hearing, the garda said he heard his finger snap and feared it had been bitten off.

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence as too lenient, and the Court of Appeal agreed. The appeal court postponed resentencing to allow Power to engage with probation services.

At the October hearing, Court of Appeal President Mr Justice George Birmingham warned Power that the matter was very serious and there were no promises. Justin McQuade BL, for Power, said his client had been engaging with probation services and had attended all scheduled meetings.

At an earlier hearing in March 2021, Mr Justice Birmingham said the probation report was not positive. He said Power should expect a prison sentence even if he engaged positively with probation, and risked a significantly more severe penalty if he did not cooperate. The court required regular drug testing, cooperation with probation and attendance at appointments.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.