The Court of Appeal reduced a teenager’s sentence for violent disorder from 12 months to six months, while upholding his sentence for dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and shortening his driving disqualification from 20 years to 15.
The court delivered judgment on 15 January 2021 on an appeal against sentence. The original sentences were imposed by Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 14 November 2019. The appellant, identified in the judgment only as N.O’R., was 17 at the sentencing hearing.
The violent disorder arose from an incident at a filling station on Skehard Road, Blackrock, on 16 March 2017. Six people were charged. The sentencing judge initially adjourned the matter, giving those involved an opportunity to provide compensation and stay out of trouble. Five later received suspended sentences. The appellant had not provided compensation and, more significantly to the appeal court, committed a serious further offence while on bail.
That offence occurred on 25 March 2019 in a suburban housing estate. The judgment says the appellant drove a dangerously defective car at speed through a sharp sequence of turns and struck a two-year-old child, causing very serious injuries, including a permanent traumatic brain injury. The appellant did not stop and drove away. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm.
The appeal court found no basis to interfere with the sentence for dangerous driving. It said the sentencing judge had considered the appellant’s youth, personal circumstances and genuine remorse, and that the seriousness of the offending and harm supported the sentence. That sentence remained six years, with the final two years suspended, consecutive to the violent disorder sentence.
The court found the different treatment of the appellant and the other violent disorder defendants was justified because he reoffended while on bail after being given an opportunity to avoid custody. However, it concluded, with considerable hesitation, that requiring him to serve all 12 months was excessive compared with the five suspended sentences. It quashed that sentence and substituted six months’ imprisonment.
The appeal court also reduced the driving disqualification to 15 years. It said that the revised period would allow the appellant to apply for restoration of his licence after seven and a half years, with restoration possible after 10 years.
The judgment addressed the decision to allow the appellant to be named in connection with the dangerous driving offence under the Children Act’s usual anonymity protections. The appeal court considered there was a rational public-interest basis for allowing identification in that matter, given the driving disqualification and public safety. It said the judge was unwise to seek the injured child’s mother’s views and cautioned against making that procedure widespread.