Court reserves ruling on appeal against Jordan O’Donovan’s glass assault sentence

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

The Court of Appeal reserved judgment until Monday on the DPP’s undue-leniency appeal against Jordan O’Donovan’s sentence for a nightclub glass assault. The appeal hearing took place on 11 April 2016. The proceedings were reported on 12 April 2016.

Jordan O’Donovan had pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to another man. The assault took place in a Cork nightclub on 27 December 2013.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a prison term of three years, with the final two suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 28 October 2014.

The DPP challenged the sentence as unduly lenient. Donal O’Sullivan, representing the DPP, said Jordan O’Donovan began a physical confrontation with another young man and struck towards his face while holding a glass. He described severe facial injuries requiring several operations and said those injuries would have been apparent.

Donal O’Sullivan argued that the sentencing judge had not identified the offence’s position on the seriousness scale and that the custodial element departed substantially from the norm. He said the Court of Criminal Appeal had required a starting point of four to seven years for serious assaults in the middle range.

Sinead Behan, representing Jordan O’Donovan, argued that addressing the matter 10 months after his release from custody would be fundamentally unfair.

She relied on his youth, absence of previous convictions, genuine remorse and guilty plea. Other mitigation included his engagement with gardaí, sporting activity, good employment history and favourable reports from probation and employers.