The Court of Appeal set aside Davin Flynn’s six-year prison sentence for arson and resentenced him to five years in custody, suspending the final two years of a seven-year headline sentence. The suspension is conditional on a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years.
Flynn had pleaded guilty to setting fire with another man to the Nirvana head shop at 164 Capel Street, Dublin, in the early hours of 12 February 2010. The fire spread to two neighbouring premises, The Souvenir Seeds Store and Utopia. The three buildings were demolished, and the court said damage to them exceeded €1 million. No one was injured.
The original sentence was imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 16 February 2015. On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the sentencing judge had not sufficiently addressed evidence of Flynn’s rehabilitation. The court said his more recent convictions were not for serious matters and that a substantial period had passed since his last serious offence before the arson. It upheld the rehabilitation ground and said it was unnecessary to rule specifically on the other grounds.
Those other grounds challenged the sentencing judge’s failure to identify a starting point for the sentence, the treatment of Flynn’s guilty plea, and the impact of serving a sentence away from his partner and children in Spain. The appeal court criticised the failure to state a starting point as a departure from best practice, but said the six-year final sentence alone did not establish an error on that basis. It also noted that the sentencing judge expressly said he had considered the guilty plea, without deciding that complaint separately.
For resentencing, the appeal court set a seven-year headline sentence after assessing the seriousness of the arson, including culpability and harm. It then suspended the final two years to account for the guilty plea and other mitigation, including Flynn’s personal circumstances, work record, sporting abilities, drug-free status, relationship with his partner and progress towards rehabilitation. The new materials considered included certificates relating to charity fundraising and training while in custody.
The appeal court’s judgment was delivered on 4 December 2015.