The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, with the final year suspended, for producing a knife in a way likely to intimidate another person.
The ex tempore judgment was delivered on 8 October 2019 by Mr Justice McCarthy. The court said the offence took place on 25 May 2018 at a branch of Dunnes Stores. A checkout worker was threatened with a homemade knife described as having the appearance of a machete and ordered to open the till. The appellant took some of its contents and ran, but was apprehended a short distance away.
The appellant, aged 21 at the time of the offence, had pleaded guilty at the earliest available opportunity. The Court of Appeal noted that he had 45 previous convictions, including earlier robbery convictions dealt with on indictment and convictions involving knives. It also recorded his history of drug and alcohol abuse and earlier efforts to address it, including residential treatment at Coolmine from November 2017 to March 2018 and aftercare with Sankalpa.
The Circuit Court had treated seven years as the appropriate starting point. The appeal did not argue that this starting point was outside the available range. Instead, it argued that the reduction was insufficient given the appellant’s rehabilitation efforts and that the sentence did not provide enough incentive to continue them.
The Court of Appeal said the offence involved a frightening incident with threats and a knife, and that the appellant’s previous convictions required a substantial custodial sentence. It said the Circuit Court had considered the relevant factors, suspended part of the sentence to support his return to the community and provide an incentive to rehabilitate, and that a lesser prison term would have failed to give due weight to punishment, retribution and deterrence.
Finding no error of principle, the court dismissed the appeal. The sentence therefore remained in place.