The Court of Appeal set aside the sentence imposed on Paul O’Connor for a 2009 robbery and imposed a 10-year term with its final 18 months suspended, subject to supervision and counselling conditions.
The court said the original 10-year sentence was severe but within the permissible range. It rejected O’Connor’s argument that the sentencing judge had placed the crime too high on the scale of seriousness.
O’Connor had been convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court of robbing Victor Chandler’s Bookmakers in Douglas, Cork, and was sentenced in 2011. The Court of Appeal heard his appeal against the severity of that sentence.
The judgment says the robber took €10,340 after forcing the bookmaker’s manager to open two safes. He threatened that the manager’s partner and young child would be harmed if Gardaí were contacted within 30 minutes. The court noted that no weapon was shown to have been used and the manager was not physically injured, but described the offence as involving significant premeditation and intimidation. Most of the money was not recovered.
A separate appeal ground concerned evidence from Sergeant Grace that described O’Connor as dangerous in the Gardaí’s view. The Court of Appeal accepted that this opinion evidence should not have been given. It said the transcript did not show that the sentencing judge was actually influenced by it, but a court observer could have been concerned that it affected the sentence. Because the judge had not expressly said he was excluding the evidence from consideration, the possibility of influence could not be ruled out. The appeal court therefore set aside the original sentence.
The appeal court then considered two reports submitted for O’Connor. They described his engagement with psychological and addiction counselling in prison, including completion of a relapse prevention programme. The court called the reports positive and said it wished to encourage his continued rehabilitation.
It imposed a 10-year sentence, suspending the final 18 months. The suspension runs for the unserved remainder of the sentence and a further two years after release. Its conditions include a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, Probation Service supervision after release, and continued cooperation with the addiction counselling team while he serves the balance of his sentence in prison.