The Court of Appeal activated Christopher Dunne’s suspended sentence in full, with the activation dated from 18 January 2018, after considering an application brought at the Probation Service’s instigation.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 15 October 2018, the court said it had imposed an eight-year prison sentence on Dunne on 27 November 2014, with the final three years suspended. He was released on 25 May 2017 with the expectation that he would live at Priorswood House in Coolock.
The judgment said Dunne initially secured a place on a community employment scheme. In July 2017, however, he had a number of positive tests for opiates and cocaine. After further positive tests and an occasion when he was said to be under the influence of drugs at the house, he was asked to leave Priorswood House.
The suspended sentence required him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. The court said the breach was not disputed and that Dunne acknowledged it through counsel. His counsel submitted that the depth of his addiction and difficulties supported activating less than the full suspended term.
The court also noted that Dunne had been remanded in custody on 15 December 2017 and later received a 10-month sentence on 18 January 2018 and a seven-month sentence on 27 April 2018. Those sentences related to three offences, including theft, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon, committed in October, November and December 2017.
The court said the breach was a “very fundamental failure to comply” and that suspended sentences must have meaning. It chose to activate the suspended term in full, but date the activation from 18 January 2018. The court said it took account of Dunne having been in custody since December 2017 and already serving a sentence from January, while the activation issue came before it only after those sentences had expired.