The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence imposed on Stephen Nolan after finding that the original punishment failed to reflect the seriousness of two violent offences, including a robbery at Poppintree Terrace in Ballymun.
The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review on grounds of undue leniency after Nolan was originally sentenced in July 2015 to a total of five years' imprisonment with the final two years suspended.
The first offence occurred on December 13, 2014. The victim, Mr Perkins, returned from a bathroom during a house party and found Nolan in his bed. When asked to leave, Nolan assaulted him and used a bottle, causing head injuries, lacerations and bruising. Mr Perkins was left with permanent scarring. Gardaí later found Nolan cleaning up evidence at the house.
The second offence happened on January 1, 2015, while Nolan was on bail for the earlier assault. At Poppintree Terrace, Ballymun, Nolan carried out an unprovoked attack on another man using a bottle or part of a bottle, slashing his hands and causing other injuries before demanding his car keys and driving away in the vehicle.
The appeal court held that the first attack belonged in the upper range of assaults causing harm. The fact that it took place in the victim's home and involved a weapon added to its seriousness. The robbery was also aggravated by the use of a weapon and by being committed while Nolan was on bail.
The court also considered Nolan's 128 previous convictions, including earlier violent offences, but took account of updated evidence that he was making progress in custody.
Because the robbery sentence had to be consecutive, the court also applied the totality principle, which requires the overall punishment to remain proportionate.
It imposed three years for the assault and a consecutive four years for the robbery, with the final 18 months suspended on condition that Nolan enter into a bond.