Damien Noonan, Francis Murphy and Stefan Saunders’ robbery sentences upheld

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

Damien Noonan, Francis Murphy and Stefan Saunders had their sentences for conspiracy to commit robbery upheld by the Court of Appeal on 12 April 2019, after the court dismissed both their severity appeals and the Director of Public Prosecutions’ undue-leniency applications. The offences arose from events at Dunboyne, County Meath, on 7 October 2016.

Each had received 10 years’ imprisonment, with the final two and a half years suspended, for conspiracy to commit robbery. Noonan also received a concurrent four-year sentence, with the final year suspended, for possessing stolen property; Saunders and Murphy received concurrent six-year sentences, with the final year suspended, for possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances.

The Court of Appeal described the offending as organised, professional criminality at a high level. It held that the sentences were not severe or overly severe and that the suspended terms, while at the limit of the trial judge’s discretion, were not unduly lenient.