The Court of Criminal Appeal has certified a point of law for appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the sentences imposed on Dominic Dwyer.
In a ruling delivered by Denham J. on 21 March 2007, the court said the case involved a point of law of exceptional public importance and that an appeal was desirable in the public interest. The certified question is whether, when such sentences are brought to a court’s attention and are the subject of legal submissions, a sentencing court may consider previous sentences imposed on an accused for offences committed after the crimes under consideration, but sentenced before the accused was sentenced for those crimes.
The certificate followed an earlier decision by the Court of Criminal Appeal on 2 February 2007. That decision arose from an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to review sentences imposed on Dwyer by Circuit Court Judge Con Murphy at Ennis Criminal Court on 3 May 2006.
The Court of Criminal Appeal found those sentences unduly lenient and quashed them. It imposed two years’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently and from 3 May 2006. The court noted that Dwyer had not been in custody, but said it ordered the sentences to run from that date in the interests of justice.
The ruling concerns certification of a question for appeal. It does not report the Supreme Court’s answer to that question.