The Court of Appeal has quashed a fully suspended four-year sentence imposed on Robert Maxwell for endangerment and replaced it with a four-year term, suspending the final two years for two years.
The court delivered judgment on 11 March 2020 on an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence as unduly lenient. Maxwell had pleaded guilty to endangerment under section 13 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. Four public order charges arising from events at the same location were also taken into consideration.
The offence occurred during the night of 6–7 August 2017 at Yewstown Estate, Nenagh, County Tipperary. The indictment said Maxwell drove a vehicle at Simon Ryan, knocked him down and drove over him, then drove at him a second time, creating a substantial risk of death or serious harm. The judgment described witness accounts that the vehicle may have reversed over Ryan or was about to do so before bystanders pulled him away; the court said that uncertainty did not materially alter the seriousness of the incident.
Ryan suffered a cut to his upper lip, fractures to his third rib and left clavicle, and soft-tissue injuries to his right thigh and ankle, including ligament damage. The judgment said he made a good physical recovery but the incident affected his confidence and continued to weigh on his mind.
The sentencing judge had identified aggravating factors including Maxwell’s intoxication, aggressive conduct that night and 28 previous convictions, many involving road traffic offences and driving disqualifications. Mitigation included his guilty plea, an apology, employment and family circumstances, and the death of his one-year-old son while Maxwell was in custody.
The DPP accepted the four-year term selected by the sentencing judge but argued that suspending all of it was unduly lenient. The Court of Appeal agreed that the offence’s seriousness and the danger posed to the public required immediate custody. It said the family circumstances were sad but did not amount to exceptional circumstances permitting a non-custodial sentence.
The court set a headline sentence of five and a half years, reduced it to four years to reflect the guilty plea and other mitigation, and suspended the final two years for two years. The judgment does not specify any further conditions attached to that suspension.