The Court of Appeal has reduced Martin Wanden’s sentence for his role in an attempted importation of 1,554kg of cocaine from 30 years to 23 years in prison, finding the original sentence disproportionate.
Wanden and two co-accused were convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in July 2008 of cocaine offences, including possession for sale or supply of cocaine valued above €13,000. Wanden’s 30-year sentence was imposed on the section 15A offence and backdated to 5 July 2007. He abandoned his appeal against conviction in January 2019. The appeal decided by the Court of Appeal concerned sentence only.
The Court of Appeal said Wanden was not at the top of the trafficking organisation but was “majorly involved at an operational level”. It also treated his 2005 French conviction for drug possession, transport and smuggling as an aggravating factor. The court described the attempted importation as exceptionally grave, given the quantity and potential harm of the cocaine.
The court rejected Wanden’s submission that the 17½-year sentence previously substituted for co-accused Perry Wharrie should act as a ceiling. The Supreme Court had ruled that Wharrie’s failure to give false evidence at trial could not be treated as mitigation, and the Court of Appeal said the 17½-year outcome could not safely guide Wanden’s sentence. It considered the 25-year sentence upheld for co-accused Joseph Daly a closer benchmark, while noting Wanden’s relevant prior drug conviction.
The Court of Appeal nevertheless found that the original sentence had crossed the line into oppressive and disproportionate punishment. It said a 30-year sentence after mitigation, with standard remission, roughly equated to release after 22½ years on a life sentence. The court considered that comparison alongside recent average custody periods for people serving life sentences, while acknowledging the limits of the comparison.
The court set a headline sentence of 27 years. It then deducted four years to reflect Wanden’s wife’s death while he awaited trial, the death of his sister in 2007, separation from his daughter and the hardship of serving a sentence in Ireland as a foreign national. The court had received no evidence to support the claimed rehabilitative steps, but noted a prison governor’s report stating that Wanden had enhanced privileges, had received ten disciplinary reports, cooperated with staff, attended school and worked as a gym cleaner.
The Court of Appeal allowed the sentence appeal and substituted a 23-year prison term. The judgment does not alter Wanden’s convictions.