Enda Gavigan’s sentence for threats to kill gardaí reduced on appeal

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

The Court of Appeal reduced Enda Gavigan’s sentence for making threats against gardaí to six years, with the final 12 months suspended, leaving five years to serve. The proceedings were reported on 8 April 2022.

Delivering judgment on 8 April 2022, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy found an error in principle and quashed the consecutive sentence for the threats count. The revised term runs concurrently with the sentences for criminal damage and possession of an article.

Gavigan pleaded guilty to criminal damage, producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury, and making threats.

On 26 June 2020, Judge Francis Comerford at Roscommon Circuit Court imposed concurrent sentences of three years for criminal damage and two years for the offensive weapon count. He imposed a consecutive sentence of seven years and six months for making threats, with the final 15 months suspended.

The charges followed an incident on 10 October 2019, when Gavigan used a wheel brace and bricks to smash windows at a house. After his arrest, he threatened to kill gardaí from a patrol van and continued making threats at Castlerea garda station.

At the appeal hearing on 7 April 2022, defence counsel Desmond Dockery SC said Gavigan had been in a dispute with a tenant of the house, which was owned by his uncle. He described the damage as violence carried out in an alcoholic stupor and argued that the threats in the van formed part of the same transaction as the criminal damage.

The appeal argued that the judge had imposed consecutive sentences to account for threats at the station that were not included in the indictment. Cathal Ó Braonáin BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, defended the sentence, citing the need to protect gardaí and the rights of people in private dwellings.