The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed on Aaron Shattock for an assault that left a man blind in one eye, suspending the final two years of a three-and-a-half-year prison term.
In a judgment delivered on 26 February 2016, the court said the sentence should remain at three and a half years to mark the seriousness of the offence. It varied the sentence by increasing the suspended portion from the final 18 months to the final two years, on the usual terms.
Shattock had pleaded guilty to assaulting Yassir Saoud at the M50 exit 11 pedestrian walkway in Tallaght on the evening of 21 August 2013. The judgment said Saoud and his cousin were talking to a girl when Shattock and a friend stopped to speak with them. A group of about 12 to 15 young people arrived, and members began using a racial slur against Saoud and his cousin.
The court’s account said Shattock threw a stick which injured Saoud’s right eye, causing him to lose sight in it. During the wider attack, Saoud and Shattock fell to the ground; others punched and kicked Saoud. Shattock then punched him in the ribs and right eye before running away.
The judgment said Saoud’s injury affected his confidence and led him to leave college. He feared losing sight in his other eye and could no longer take part in contact sports and activities requiring hand-eye coordination.
Shattock was 17 at the time of the offence and 19 when sentenced in the Circuit Court. He had no previous convictions, had completed secondary education and was working full time in a Dublin warehouse when sentenced. The appeal argued that the sentencing judge had not given enough weight to his guilty plea, youth, clean record, remorse and productive circumstances. The prosecution accepted there was significant mitigation but argued the sentence was proportionate and involved no error of principle.
The Court of Appeal said the offence required an immediate prison sentence, while accepting that Shattock did not intend the outcome and was not the initiator of the racial abuse. It considered his mitigation, including remorse, cooperation with gardaí and youth, exceptional. The judgment records that 20 months passed before imprisonment took effect; it does not specify the event from which that period was measured.