The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence imposed on Michael Welby for dangerous driving causing the death of Róisín Hession, finding that the original five-year headline sentence was not within the norm for offending of this gravity.
In a judgment delivered on 13 February 2023, the court allowed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, which permits review of a sentence on grounds of undue leniency. The original sentence was three years’ imprisonment, with the final 18 months suspended. The court quashed it and resentenced Welby de novo.
The fatal crash occurred in the early hours of 1 March 2020 near Oughterard. The judgment says Welby had consumed alcohol, and a blood sample taken more than two hours after the collision showed 125 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, twice the legal limit. The vehicle had several defects, which Welby admitted knowing about. The court also noted that he accelerated after a Garda tried to stop him, describing the attempt to evade Gardaí as a significantly aggravating factor.
The original sentencing judge identified aggravating factors including the alcohol level, the defective vehicle and the failure to stop. The judge set a five-year headline sentence, reduced it to three years after considering mitigation, then suspended the final 18 months. The DPP argued that the headline sentence was too low, that deterrence and aggravating factors had not received sufficient weight, and that the combined reductions gave excessive weight to mitigation. Welby’s submissions highlighted his guilty plea, remorse, lack of previous convictions, cooperation and serious injuries in the crash.
The Court of Appeal said undue-leniency review requires a substantial departure from the appropriate sentence, amounting to an error in principle. It held that the aggravating circumstances, particularly accelerating to evade Gardaí, placed the offending at the upper end of the mid-range and made the original headline sentence a departure from the norm.
The court set a new headline sentence of six years. Taking account of the guilty plea, lack of previous convictions, remorse and personal circumstances, it reduced that to four years’ imprisonment. It suspended the final 18 months for two years, agreeing with the original judge’s approach to suspension, and left the four-year driving disqualification in place.