The Court of Appeal has increased Cian Walsh’s sentence to five years’ imprisonment after allowing a Director of Public Prosecutions application to review the original sentence as unduly lenient.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 1 June 2018, the court quashed the Circuit Court sentence of six years, with two years suspended, and substituted five years’ imprisonment simpliciter, to run from the same date as the original sentence. The court limited its intervention because Mr Walsh was already serving the sentence and believed he knew his release date.
The original sentences, imposed on 30 May 2017, covered three counts of threatening to kill and two counts of possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances. The firearm was a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun. The offences arose from events on 25 May 2016. Signed guilty pleas had been entered in the District Court and confirmed in the Circuit Court.
The court heard that Mr Walsh, intoxicated, went to a suburban address in Cork, the home of Ms Janice McGreanor, and pointed the shotgun at her. A round was discharged, apparently unintentionally, when he tripped over the family dog. In her victim impact statement, Ms McGreanor described the gun being held under her chin and said he threatened to kill her.
Earlier that day, Mr Walsh had fought with Mr Healy and suffered injuries. He later went to the home of Mr Healy’s former partner. During the appeal hearing, it was suggested he may not have realised their relationship had ended. Two of the threat counts related to the earlier incident involving Mr Healy; the third related to the threat against Ms McGreanor.
After the incident at Ms McGreanor’s home, a co-accused drove Mr Walsh away in a vehicle. During the getaway, Mr Walsh left the loaded shotgun behind a tombstone at St Joseph’s Cemetery. Gardaí recovered it some days later after examining CCTV footage. The court noted that the cemetery was open to the public and used by walkers, cyclists and, at times, children.
The DPP’s counsel had reminded the sentencing judge that firearm offences carried a maximum 14-year sentence and a presumptive mandatory minimum of five years, subject to statutory grounds for departure. The Court of Appeal found an error, concluding there was no basis to depart from the minimum for the relevant firearm offences. It said six years would have been appropriate and that a sentence of seven or seven and a half years might not have been disturbed, but ultimately imposed the five-year minimum because of the circumstances of resentencing.