The Court of Appeal dismissed linked appeals by Michael Doyle and Patrick Doyle against the severity of sentences imposed by the Circuit Court in Clonmel. It reduced one sentence for Patrick Doyle: a two-year term for a section 2 assault exceeded the statutory maximum, so the court substituted six months. The other sentences were left in place.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 25 March 2019, the court said the appeals concerned offending in Fethard, County Tipperary, over a short period in late March and April 2016. The brothers had entered dwellings in connection with violence, and the court described the incidents as serious.
Michael Doyle had pleaded guilty to burglaries at dwellings in Gort An Óir on 31 March and Slievenamon Close on 9 April 2016, assaults connected with those incidents, and three theft counts involving shoplifting from the Centra store in Fethard. His aggregate sentence was seven and a half years, with the final three years suspended. It included a six-month sentence for contempt of court relating to an alleged breach of an undertaking.
His appeal argued that the sentencing judge had not set a headline figure, had placed the offences too high in the range of gravity, and had failed to give proper weight to his role, totality and the use of consecutive sentences. He also argued that the difference between his sentence and his brother’s was unjustified. The appeal challenged the evidence supporting the contempt finding and an alleged curfew breach.
Patrick Doyle’s sentences included consecutive terms for the Gort An Óir burglary, the Slievenamon Close burglary and a section 3 assault, alongside concurrent terms. The court noted that he had no previous convictions and was 18 when the offences were committed. It said a difference between the brothers’ sentences was to be expected given Patrick Doyle’s age and record, and found no basis to say his role was lesser.
The court held that the evidence was sufficient for the sentencing judge to find Michael Doyle had breached the undertaking and curfew conditions. It concluded that both appellants’ sentences fell within the available range and the judge’s margin of appreciation. The appeals were dismissed, subject to the reduction of Patrick Doyle’s section 2 assault sentence from two years to six months. No other sentence was altered.