The Court of Appeal reduced Melissa Whelan’s sentence for assault causing serious harm from 12 years to seven and a half years, suspending the remaining four and a half years subject to the conditions set by the Circuit Criminal Court.
In a judgment delivered on 11 May 2018, the court found an error in principle in the original sentencing approach. It quashed the sentence and resentenced Whelan after concluding that the original three-year reduction accounted for the value of her early guilty plea but did not appear to include other mitigating factors.
Whelan had pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing serious harm under section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997. She also pleaded guilty to two theft counts, which were taken into consideration. Her appeal challenged the severity of the sentence, not the convictions.
The assault took place during a house party at a ground-floor apartment at Knock Hill, Ennis Road, Limerick, on 6 May 2015. The judgment says Whelan struck the injured party with a bottle, punched him and kicked him while he was on the floor, then dragged him outside. He was found unconscious the next morning and suffered serious brain swelling, a cardiac arrest, and lasting difficulties with swallowing, speech and memory.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the sentencing judge’s 12-year headline sentence, describing the offence as very serious and its consequences as catastrophic. But it said the early guilty plea, which spared the injured party and his family a trial, should receive a reduction of at least 25 per cent. The original three-year reduction was exactly 25 per cent of the headline sentence.
The court also identified other mitigation considered by the sentencing judge, including Whelan’s remorse, troubled upbringing, youth, four young children, prospects for rehabilitation and progress in custody. It said the sentencing judge had not made clear what allowance had been made for those factors. The Court of Appeal therefore added a further 18-month reduction for them.
The resulting sentence is seven and a half years: the court reduced the 12-year headline term by four and a half years, all of which is suspended under the same conditions imposed by the Circuit Criminal Court.