The Court of Appeal has reduced the prison term activated against Eddie Darcy for breaching a suspended sentence, replacing six years with four years from 17 July 2014. The remaining two years will stay suspended on the original conditions until 17 July 2020.
Darcy had pleaded guilty at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court on 17 July 2014 to robbery involving cash taken from a person while armed with a knife. He received a six-year prison sentence, entirely suspended for six years on strict conditions.
The sentencing judge later revoked the suspension in full after Darcy committed further offences during the suspension period. The judgment identifies three road traffic offences on 20 September 2014, including drink driving, taking his uncle’s car without authorisation and driving without insurance, and possession of a knife on 9 November 2014. The District Court imposed one-month sentences for the triggering offences, to be served consecutively to the activated term.
Darcy appealed the activation. His grounds included his age—he was 17 when the 2012 robbery was committed and 20 at the time of appeal—a consultant clinical psychologist’s report describing addiction and personal problems and a dysfunctional family background, and what he argued was the relatively minor nature of the later offences.
The Court of Appeal said the original decision to suspend the whole sentence was lenient, and that the later offences were not minor. It also said the sentencing judge’s approach to whether the suspension should be revoked was acceptable under section 99 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, as amended. The court explained that the law requires revocation unless doing so would be unjust in all the circumstances.
However, the appeal court found an error of principle in activating all six years. It said insufficient weight had been given to Darcy’s age, the psychologist’s report and the fact that, while not minor, the triggering offences were summary offences and not among the most serious. The court said a judge deciding whether to activate all, part or none of a suspended term must consider the circumstances of the offences and the offender as if sentencing afresh, within the context of reviewing the earlier suspension.
The court quashed the six-year activated term and imposed four years from 17 July 2014. It said it had considered a letter from a potential employer, letters from a prison head teacher and counsellor, and Darcy’s own letter. Two years remain suspended on the original conditions through 17 July 2020.