Dessie O'Hare withdrew appeal against sentence for 2015 offences

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

Dessie O'Hare withdrew his appeal against the severity of his sentence for falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne and assaulting John Roche. On 29 July 2021, the Court of Appeal warned that it could increase as well as reduce the sentence and indicated that an unfavourable outcome was possible. After consulting O'Hare, his barrister told the court that he had instructed him to withdraw the appeal.

O'Hare had pleaded guilty to assaulting John Roche, causing him harm, at The Towers in Saggart and falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne at Rathcoole and Saggart. Both offences took place on 9 June 2015. The Special Criminal Court was also asked to take two counts concerning the false imprisonment of Byrne’s wife and son into consideration.

On 11 April 2019, the Special Criminal Court sentenced O'Hare to three years for the assault and ten years for false imprisonment, with the final three years suspended on a bond to be of good behaviour for the rest of his life. The sentences run concurrently. Mr Justice Tony Hunt said O'Hare was an organiser and high-level participant in the incident.