The Court of Appeal has found that two sentences imposed on Robert Murphy for firearm possession and arson were unduly lenient, but it had not yet decided what replacement sentences to impose.
The ruling, delivered on 12 June 2015, followed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to review sentences imposed by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 10 October 2014. The Court of Appeal said it would hear further submissions from both sides before substituting its own sentences.
Murphy had received an overall sentence of nine years in prison, with the final five years suspended. The sentencing judge also ordered two years of post-release supervision. The three sentences were two years for possessing a flick knife; six years, with the final four suspended, for possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances; and seven years, with the final five suspended, for arson. The firearm sentence was consecutive to the knife sentence.
The DPP argued that the firearm and arson sentences were too lenient, individually and overall, because the sentencing judge gave insufficient weight to aggravating factors. The court recounted that Murphy discharged a sawn-off shotgun through the front door of a house during a dispute, causing the householder superficial wounds. In the arson incident, a woman awoke to a fire at her home in the early hours of the morning and brought her four-year-old child downstairs to safety. Murphy later admitted setting the fire and pleaded guilty. The judgment said the fire caused more than €50,000 in damage to two properties.
The court also considered the sentencing judge’s account of Murphy’s personal circumstances, including mental health difficulties, drug and alcohol problems, and his criminal record. It said those circumstances did not excuse the offending. While the sentencing judge had applied proportionality and included a rehabilitative element, the Court of Appeal concluded that he had not given sufficient weight to the seriousness of the aggravating factors in the firearm and arson offences.
The Court therefore allowed the DPP’s application in respect of those two sentences. The judgment records no change to the two-year knife sentence, and sets no replacement terms for the firearm or arson sentences. The court adjourned that step until it had heard further submissions.