Eoghan McGarry sentencing adjourned over prison assaults
This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.
Eoghan McGarry’s final sentencing was adjourned at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court before Judge Melanie Greally. The proceedings were reported on 21 April 2016.
McGarry pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to three prison officers. The assaults took place at Mountjoy Prison on 23 April 2015.
Judge Melanie Greally imposed sentences of two and a half years consecutive to his existing prison sentence. She proposed a four-and-a-half-year sentence, with the final year suspended, for the most serious assault.
She adjourned finalising the case until the end of July while the implications of a High Court ruling were clarified. Earlier that week, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty had declared unconstitutional the law governing activation of suspended sentences following a new offence. Judge Melanie Greally said she would not impose a sentence that could not be enforced if McGarry reoffended.
McGarry was serving a four-year sentence for aggravated burglary, imposed in March 2015 with the final year suspended. He was due for release in December 2017 and had 38 previous convictions, including assault, burglary and criminal damage.
The court heard that McGarry attacked the officers with a homemade weapon fashioned from razor blades and a toothbrush as they delivered breakfast to his cell. Two officers suffered post-traumatic stress and had not returned to work.
Luigi Rea BL, defending, said McGarry’s mental health difficulties were affected by illicit drug taking and failure to take prescribed medication. Judge Melanie Greally noted his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and that he responded well to medication but took it sporadically. She described assaulting prison officers on duty as a severely aggravating factor.
His mother, Maria McGarry, told Luigi Rea that her son was a good person when taking his medication. She had visited before the assaults and been concerned that he was unwell.