The Court of Appeal reduced the sentence imposed on a man who pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning and robbing an escort at a Cork hotel, replacing an eight-year term with six years’ imprisonment.
The appeal, heard by Birmingham, Sheehan and Edwards JJ., concerned the sentence imposed at Cork Circuit Court on 28 April 2015. The Court of Appeal’s ex tempore judgment was delivered by Sheehan J. on 16 December 2016. The new sentence is to be backdated as the Circuit Court sentence had been.
The offence took place at the Metropole Hotel on 20 November 2013. The judgment said the appellant had engaged the services of the injured party, identified in the judgment as Silvia S, who was working as an escort from a hotel room. As he was leaving, an accomplice entered. The two men tied her hands and feet, covered her head with a towel and placed her in the bath. They took €4,000 in cash and other property valued at €620. The appellant was later identified on hotel CCTV.
The trial judge described the offending as planned and violent and imposed eight years’ imprisonment, backdated to the appellant’s arrest on 10 September 2014. The appellant’s counsel challenged the sentence on several grounds, including insufficient weight given to mitigation and rehabilitation. At the appeal hearing, counsel’s principal focus was that the trial judge had set the headline sentence too high, arguing it should have been two years lower.
The Court of Appeal noted that the victim freed herself after 20 minutes and had minimal physical injuries, although she had been terrified. It said the original sentencing hearing transcript was silent on several matters. Comparing the case with robbery sentences imposed or upheld between 2003 and 2013, the court concluded the headline sentence was somewhat excessive and ordered a fresh sentence hearing.
The court set the appropriate headline sentence at eight years. It then took account of the guilty plea, the appellant’s limited cooperation with gardaí and his progress in prison, including school and music study. It also considered submissions that he had reconnected with his family in Douglas. The court imposed six years’ imprisonment, backdated on the same basis as the Circuit Court sentence.