The Court of Appeal has dismissed Jason Coffey’s appeal against the severity of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for robbery, finding that the sentence fell within the available range and that no error of principle had been identified.
The sentence was imposed by the Circuit Court in Tralee on 14 March 2018 after a contested trial. It was backdated to 11 October 2017. In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 21 January 2019, the Court of Appeal said the sentence could not be considered particularly severe, still less excessively severe.
The robbery followed an incident in a Killarney laneway on 2 October 2017. The judgment said Coffey had been urinating there when a local businessperson asked him to stop. Coffey’s 17-year-old brother threw a beer can at the man, striking him. Coffey then attacked the man from behind and knocked a phone from his hand. The man was knocked to the ground. The brother produced a claw hammer, but the pair left after Coffey said he had the phone.
The prosecution case at trial relied on joint enterprise, and the jury’s guilty verdict indicated it accepted that basis, the appeal court said. The judgment also noted that Coffey’s brother was dealt with as a juvenile in the District Court, while Coffey was tried as an adult in the Circuit Court.
Coffey argued on appeal that the sentence should have been at the low end of the lowest range for indictable robbery, and that the six-month reduction from a stated headline sentence of three years was inadequate. He also challenged the difference in treatment between himself and his brother.
The Court of Appeal rejected the parity argument, citing the brother’s age, lack of previous convictions and District Court plea, compared with Coffey’s adult status and record, which included an earlier robbery conviction carrying a partly suspended sentence that was still in force when the new offence was committed.
The court described the robbery as serious and said the victim impact report showed the incident had affected the victim severely. It also took account of the Circuit Court judge’s decision not to activate part of the earlier suspended sentence. The appeal court dismissed Coffey’s appeal.