The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the severity of a four-year prison sentence imposed on Jonathan Lynch for burglary, finding the sentence proportionate to the offending and his personal circumstances.
Lynch had pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Court on 8 November 2013. The sentencing judge ordered the four-year term to run consecutively to a sentence of one year and eight months he was already serving for another burglary. Two further burglaries committed on the same day were taken into account when the judge set the overall sentence.
The appeal challenged the sentence as excessive and argued that the judge had wrongly treated previous convictions as aggravating, failed to give adequate weight to rehabilitation, and departed from the approach outlined in earlier sentencing decisions. The Court of Appeal said it continued to endorse that approach, while adding that failure to follow it rigidly does not always amount to an error of principle.
The court reviewed details of the offending presented at sentencing. On 24 April 2013, Lynch broke into a house in Ballinasloe. The householder heard him upstairs; when confronted, Lynch slammed a door and tried to escape. Jewellery had been taken but was recovered. Lynch was arrested as he left, after injuring himself jumping from an upstairs window.
He also pleaded guilty to entering a takeaway premises and stealing a wallet and keys, and to an earlier offence that evening in which fishing gear and €400 were stolen. The fishing gear and wallet were recovered; the cash and keys were not. The judgment says he cooperated with gardaí and made full admissions.
At sentence, the court was told Lynch was 27, had 63 previous convictions, including 27 for burglary, and was on bail for another offence when the burglaries occurred. The sentencing court also heard about his troubled childhood, drug addiction and alcohol problem, and his participation in a weekly addiction programme in Ballinasloe. The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had appropriately considered his personal circumstances and efforts to address addiction, and had recommended treatment in prison.
The appeal court held that relevant previous convictions could be considered when locating an offence on the scale of seriousness, and that Lynch’s burglary convictions were relevant. It concluded the sentence was not excessive and dismissed the appeal. The judgment did not change the sentence.