The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence imposed on Soufiane Mountassir for false imprisonment and assault causing harm, after allowing a Director of Public Prosecutions application to review the sentence as unduly lenient.
In a judgment delivered on 19 December 2024, the court quashed the sentence imposed by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and resentenced Mountassir to five and a half years’ imprisonment, backdated to 13 November 2022. The assault causing harm count was again taken into consideration. The appeal concerned the sentence, not a retrial of the charges.
Mountassir had pleaded guilty to both offences on 2 October 2023. The sentencing court imposed a three-and-a-half-year sentence for false imprisonment, after setting a five-year headline sentence and allowing an 18-month reduction for mitigation. The assault count was taken into consideration.
The Court of Appeal found that five years was substantially too low as a headline sentence. It said the offending involved very serious violence, repeated restraints on the victim’s liberty, significant physical and psychological trauma and an ordeal lasting an hour and 40 minutes across several locations. The court also found that the intimate-partner context engaged section 40 of the Domestic Violence Act 2018, and that the assault count required an uplift to the sentence for false imprisonment.
The court assessed the appropriate headline sentence at eight years. It calculated that as a five-year starting point, increased by 18 months to reflect the statutory sentencing policy for offending against an intimate partner and by a further 18 months because the assault count was taken into consideration. It then deducted two and a half years for mitigating and personal circumstances, including information in a prison governor’s report about Mountassir’s conduct and work in prison and the absence of personal visits. The resulting sentence is five and a half years.
The court said it did not find error in how the sentencing judge had discounted for mitigation. Rather, the original sentence was unduly lenient because the headline sentence was too low. It described Mountassir’s culpability as very high and said the victim continued to experience the effects of significant trauma.
The judgment recounts evidence that the victim was forced into a car boot, assaulted at different locations and found by gardaí with blood on her face and clothing. Those details were part of the evidence considered in the sentencing proceedings and the Court of Appeal’s review.