Jason Doyle’s jail time doubled to 18 months after State appeal

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

The Court of Appeal doubled Jason Doyle’s jail time to 18 months after the State successfully appealed his sentence for assaulting his pregnant partner. The court gave a three-year headline sentence, discounted nine months for his guilty plea and suspended a further nine months.

The appeal judgment was given on 4 July 2023. The proceedings were reported on 4 July 2023.

Sligo Circuit Criminal Court heard in January that Doyle, then aged 28, had been charged with four counts of assault causing harm to his then partner, Karen Maguire, at their home on 10 January 2021. Prosecuting counsel Leo Mulrooney BL told Judge Keenan Johnson that Doyle had pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing harm on a full-facts basis.

Doyle, of Tower Hill, Ballymote, Co Sligo, had received a two-year sentence, with the final 15 months suspended to encourage his rehabilitation for addiction and anger issues. The State appealed, arguing that the sentence was unduly lenient.

The lower court heard that Doyle was intoxicated when he punched Maguire on the head, causing bleeding, and later slapped her. Maguire said the assaults occurred between midnight and the early hours of 10 January. The report said Doyle also punched her in the bathroom and later punched and kicked her in the bedroom.

The court heard that Doyle had 86 previous convictions, including for assault, robbery, criminal damage and domestic violence. For the three-judge appeal court, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy gave him credit for expressing remorse but said his guilty plea had been entered late, on the day of trial. She found that the original court had applied an excessive discount for mitigation and suspended too much of the sentence.