The Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence imposed on a man who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of his friend, Thomas McDonagh, in Co Galway in 2014.
The judgment, delivered on 8 July 2016, allowed the appeal against sentence and set aside the original 10-year term, of which the final two years had been suspended for five years. The court substituted a headline sentence of eight years’ imprisonment and suspended the final two years for two years on the usual terms. It also directed that the appellant be supervised by the Probation Service during that period to assist his reintegration after serving the sentence.
The appellant had pleaded guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court in Galway on 7 July 2015. The Court of Appeal said the trial judge had imposed the maximum sentence for the offence. It found that 10 years was out of line with sentences in comparable cases and that the psychiatric report on the appellant’s remorse and alcohol problem did not appear to have received proper consideration. The appeal court also questioned the trial judge’s statement that there was no practical demonstration of remorse.
The court emphasised that the case involved multiple aggravating factors. The judgment records evidence that the appellant had been driving at speed, was uninsured and disqualified, and had consumed alcohol. The car went off the road at a bend and into a water-filled drain. The court described the case as serious, while finding that the appellant’s guilty plea, admissions after arrest, remorse, efforts to address his drinking, youth, family circumstances and progress in prison were mitigating factors.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had proposed suspending part of the original sentence in view of the guilty plea and to encourage rehabilitation. It considered that a two-year suspension, together with probation supervision, would better support the appellant’s return to society after custody. The judgment does not state that the appeal court changed the separate 20-year driving disqualification imposed at sentencing.