Court rejects sentence appeals and prosecution applications

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

The Court of Appeal dismissed sentence appeals brought by Kevin Hannaway, Eva Shannon and Sean Hannaway, and refused prosecution applications to review the sentences imposed on David Nooney and Edward O'Brien as unduly lenient. Mr Justice Edwards delivered the court's judgment on 14 February 2020.

The five had separately appealed against their convictions. The Court of Appeal dismissed those appeals in a judgment delivered on 6 February 2020.

Kevin Hannaway and Eva Shannon were convicted of providing assistance to an unlawful organisation. Sean Hannaway, David Nooney and Edward O'Brien were convicted of membership of an unlawful organisation. The convictions followed a 50-day trial and were handed down on 29 June 2018.

On 31 July 2018, the Special Criminal Court sentenced Kevin Hannaway to three years and nine months in prison, Eva Shannon to four years, Sean Hannaway to five years and six months, David Nooney to three years and nine months, and Edward O'Brien to 16 months. The sentencing hearing had taken place on 24 July 2018.

In refusing the Director of Public Prosecutions' applications, the Court of Appeal was not persuaded that the discount applied to David Nooney's sentence was excessive. It considered the discount in Edward O'Brien's case generous, but was not persuaded that the sentencing court had exceeded its margin of appreciation.