The Court of Appeal has rejected Damien Greene’s appeal against the severity of a 10-year prison sentence for assault causing serious harm, finding no error of principle by the sentencing judge.
The ex tempore judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 17 April 2018, concerned an attack on Richard Coster in Bray in April 2013. Greene was convicted by a majority jury verdict at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court on 25 July 2014 and sentenced on 17 December that year. The sentence was to run from the date of conviction, with its final three years suspended on conditions.
The court heard that Coster had been drinking at Greene’s home and was leaving when Greene struck his face with a Stanley knife or blade. The sentencing judge accepted that the attack was random and not premeditated. Coster needed surgery under general anaesthesia for a full-thickness wound about 10 centimetres long. A medical report said it would leave an extensive scar and cause serious disfigurement.
Greene argued that the sentence overstated the offence’s gravity, given that the wound came from a single strike, the attack was not premeditated and he was extremely intoxicated. His counsel also argued that the extent of disfigurement did not justify starting at 10 years. The prosecution submitted that use of a bladed weapon placed the case in the high range under *People (Director of Public Prosecutions) v Fitzgibbon* [2014] 1 IR 627, and that the starting point was appropriate.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the prosecution’s position on the range. It said the circumstances justified placing the offence in the middle of the high range identified in *Fitzgibbon*, which it described as seven and a half to 12 and a half years before mitigation.
The court noted that Greene had contested the case, had not been cooperative and had previous convictions, including convictions for violent offences. It identified his efforts to address addiction through engagement with the Bray Community Addiction Team as his significant mitigating factor. The sentencing judge had suspended the final three years to acknowledge and encourage those efforts; the Court of Appeal said that decision was appropriate and arguably generous.
The court said it was “disposed to dismiss the appeal”. The judgment does not record a formal dismissal order.