Dessie O’Hare’s sentence appeal reset to 22 January

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

The Court of Appeal fixed 22 January as the new date for Dessie O’Hare’s appeal against the severity of his sentence after he dismissed his legal team. The proceedings were reported on 11 December 2020.

At a remote hearing, Patrick Jackson BL said O’Hare had contacted Ferry Solicitors to come on record. Court of Appeal President Justice George Birmingham permitted the change of solicitor. Jackson said he and Dominic McGinn SC were not in a position to deal with the appeal on the previously scheduled Monday because O’Hare had contacted the firm only that week.

O’Hare admitted assaulting John Roche, causing him harm, and pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne. The offences took place in County Dublin on 9 June 2015. The Special Criminal Court was also asked to take two counts of falsely imprisoning Byrne’s wife and son into consideration.

The Special Criminal Court sentenced O’Hare to three years for the assault and ten years for falsely imprisoning Byrne, with three years of the latter sentence suspended for the rest of his life. The sentences run concurrently. Justice Tony Hunt passed sentence the previous year.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Costelloe SC, said the ground of appeal concerned a lack of parity between O’Hare and Declan Duffy. Duffy was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in 2018 after pleading guilty to assaulting Roche and admitting falsely imprisoning Byrne in the same incidents.