The Court of Appeal has increased a man’s sentence for violent disorder from two years’ imprisonment, with the final six months suspended, to four years, with the final year suspended. The court held that the original sentence was unduly lenient and ordered credit for time served.
The appeal was brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. The respondent had pleaded guilty to violent disorder, contrary to section 15(1) of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994. The original sentence was imposed at the Circuit Criminal Court in Cavan on 10 March 2015.
The judgment said the offence took place in February 2014 at the home of William White in Belturbet, County Cavan. According to evidence outlined to the court, four men entered through an unlocked kitchen door. White was threatened with a knife, stabbed in the cheek, struck on the head and kicked while on the ground. The men threatened to kill him and called him a paedophile; the judgment said there was no basis for that accusation.
The prosecution submitted that the attack was planned, involved weapons and was sustained, and that it took place in the home of a vulnerable victim. The respondent’s counsel argued that the sentencing judge had carefully weighed the evidence and mitigating circumstances, and that the sentence was proportionate. The appeal court noted the respondent’s guilty plea, remorse, efforts to address drug addiction, capacity for rehabilitation and reduced role in the offence. It also recorded that he was not the instigator.
The court concluded that the original term fell considerably short of the sentence needed to reflect the seriousness of the offending. It set that sentence aside and substituted four years’ imprisonment, suspending the final year on the condition that the respondent enter a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for one year after release. He was to receive credit for time served.
The judgment also recorded that the respondent did not attend an adjourned fresh sentencing hearing, prompting the court to issue an arrest warrant. A later probation report said he had relapsed into drug use and was using heroin daily.