The Court of Appeal has replaced a wholly suspended sentence imposed on Andrew Crilly for assault causing harm with 18 months’ imprisonment, suspending the final six months on the same terms set by the Circuit Criminal Court.
The court delivered its judgment on 13 May 2019 in an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence as unduly lenient. Crilly had been convicted by a jury of assault under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. The Circuit Court had imposed 14 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for four years.
The assault occurred at the Crowe’s Nest Pub in Dundalk on 19 June 2016. The Court of Appeal viewed CCTV footage showing a verbal altercation, followed by Crilly striking the injured party with a bar stool and kicking him after he fell. The injured party suffered facial fractures, lacerations requiring stitches, impaired eyesight and nerve damage. The judgment described the physical and psychological consequences as serious and long-term.
The DPP argued that the sentencing judge gave too much weight to mitigation, including Crilly’s age and the circumstances of the incident, and that the sentence was excessively lenient. Crilly’s counsel argued that the sentence was within the judge’s discretion, citing his lack of previous convictions, personal and family circumstances, good-character testimonials and remorse. The respondent also relied on an apology said to have been made in evidence and an earlier offer to plead guilty to the section 3 offence.
The Court of Appeal agreed that the 24-month pre-mitigation sentence identified by the Circuit Court judge was within the available range, though somewhat light. It found that Crilly’s age—28 at the time—was not a mitigating factor and that the circumstances of the offence went to its gravity, rather than mitigation. The court accepted the absence of previous convictions and other personal circumstances as relevant mitigation, but said there had been no guilty plea to the offence of conviction.
The appeal court ruled that reducing the sentence to 14 months and suspending it in full made it unduly lenient. It quashed that sentence and resentenced Crilly: 18 months’ imprisonment, with the final six months suspended on the same terms imposed by the Circuit Court.