The Court of Appeal has quashed and replaced sentences imposed on Martina McGrath, Mark Dolan and Dale Brazil after finding that all three were unduly lenient. The DPP brought the cases as separate reviews under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993; the court heard them on the same day because they raised similar issues.
The court said all three offences fell at the upper end of the scale for assault causing harm. It said judges should consider a five-year pre-mitigation sentence in high-end cases, including borderline cases between assault causing harm and the more serious offence of causing serious harm. Five years is the statutory maximum for assault causing harm.
McGrath had received two and a half years, with the final year suspended, for stabbing a pregnant woman four times at a Waterford car park. The victim suffered permanent facial scarring. The Court of Appeal set a five-year starting point, reduced it by one year for limited mitigation and suspended the final six months. It substituted a three-and-a-half-year sentence, with six months suspended.
Dolan had received two years, with 18 months suspended, for smashing a glass into a man’s face in a nightclub. The victim was left with permanent scarring and lost his place with the Ireland under-19 rugby squad. Dolan had completed the original sentence and, the court heard, had made progress in a rehabilitation programme. The court substituted a three-and-a-half-year sentence, suspended it on terms to be discussed with counsel, and granted credit for time served. The judgment does not set out those suspension terms.
Brazil had received two years for assault causing harm and a concurrent 18-month sentence for threatening to kill. The assault followed an incident at a Waterford home in which the victim was struck with objects described as a wooden bat and a metal bar or golf club. He suffered fractures to his cheekbone, nasal bone and skull base. The Court of Appeal focused on the assault because the sentencing transcript gave little information about the threat-to-kill count. It quashed the sentence for assault causing harm and substituted three years’ imprisonment. The judgment does not state that the concurrent threat-to-kill sentence was changed.
The court said the resentencing took account of the passage of time and circumstances since the original hearings. It did not review the separate 2017 assault sentence imposed on Brazil, though it considered that sentence as context.