The Court of Appeal upheld a four-year prison sentence imposed on Josip Stanic for threatening to kill a woman and related offences, while extending from 48 hours to 14 days the period he had to leave Ireland after release.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 5 December 2019, the court dismissed his appeal except for that change to the probation bond. The final year of the sentence was suspended on conditions that he leave Ireland, remain under Probation Services supervision and stay away from the injured party. The sentence had taken account of time already served in custody.
Stanic had pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Court on 7 May 2019 to assault causing harm and threatening to kill at Cathedral Road, Cork, and assault and producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury at McSwiney Villas, Gurranabraher. The sentencing judge took the latter offences into consideration when sentencing him for the threat to kill.
The judgment described two incidents about a month apart. In December 2018, Stanic assaulted the woman at their shared accommodation, wrapped a rolled-up T-shirt around her neck and produced a knife. In January 2019, after shouting outside her home, he punched and kicked her. He told her he had followed her for five days and threatened to kill her then or years later. She suffered facial bruising and swelling, a cut to her nose, and pain in her neck and body.
The court said the trial judge had identified stalking behaviour. The injured party told the court she feared she would die, remained afraid, and had moved house twice, including after Stanic was granted bail. The judgment also recorded his lack of previous convictions, cooperation with gardaí and heroin addiction.
On appeal, Stanic challenged the requirement to leave within 48 hours and argued that the sentence was disproportionate given his record and mitigation. His counsel accepted that he had told the sentencing judge he planned to leave Ireland for Germany, where his family had resettled. The Court of Appeal found no error in principle in suspending part of the sentence on that basis.
However, it said the 48-hour deadline would be difficult given Stanic’s limited means and the practical problems of arranging departure from custody. The court therefore amended the bond to allow 14 days. It rejected the proportionality challenge, citing the violence, injuries, weapon, separate assaults and threat, and said his expressions of remorse did not prevent the second assault.