The Court of Appeal has dismissed Joseph Griffiths’s appeal against a four-year prison sentence for making a threat with a syringe, finding that an error in how the sentencing judge treated the syringe did not warrant intervention.
Griffiths had pleaded guilty to an offence under section 6 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. The appeal court said the sentencing judge erred by treating use of the syringe as an aggravating factor, because it was an element of the offence. It concluded that the error was not substantive enough to alter the five-year headline sentence before mitigation.
The offence occurred on the evening of 28 August 2013 at the Heuston Luas Stop. The judgment said Griffiths and his partner had been drinking on the platform and disturbing people waiting there. When two security guards asked them to move on, Griffiths became abusive, approached one guard in a threatening manner and pointed a syringe at both guards. He threatened to stab them in the neck and said words to the effect that he was HIV positive. The guards feared for their safety and backed away before restraining him. The appeal court also viewed CCTV footage, which captured further threats and a reference to putting the syringe into a guard’s jugular.
The sentencing judge placed the offence in the mid-range and set a five-year sentence before mitigation, reducing it to four years. The appeal court agreed with that assessment, citing the serious threat of infection, the guards’ work-related circumstances and their visible distress when Gardaí arrived. It also upheld the weight given to mitigation, including the guilty plea, addiction and social difficulties, efforts to become drug-free and past employment.
The court rejected the argument that part of the sentence should have been suspended. It noted that the case had been adjourned to allow Griffiths to engage with probation services, but he attended only one appointment. A probation report assessed him as at high risk of reoffending and unsuitable for probation supervision.
The appeal was dismissed. The four-year sentence therefore remained in place.