The Court of Appeal has quashed a sentence imposed on Nathan Doherty for assault causing serious harm and replaced it with six years’ imprisonment, suspending one year for two years. It also made a separate €25,000 compensation order payable in annual instalments.
The decision followed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence as unduly lenient. Doherty had pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm and producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury. A criminal damage charge was taken into consideration. In January 2021, Longford Circuit Criminal Court imposed an effective six-year sentence, suspending the final three years for ten years subject to conditions that included compensation payments.
The Court of Appeal said the eight-year headline sentence and the reduction to six years for mitigation were not challenged. The appeal concerned the decision to suspend half of the post-mitigation sentence. The court found the sentencing judge had given insufficient weight to general deterrence and suspended an excessive period that could not be justified by rehabilitation or restitution. It quashed the sentence and resentenced Doherty.
The judgment described an attack at a house in County Longford in June 2018. It said the victim suffered multiple injuries, including a rectal perforation, and underwent a colostomy that remained in place for about 18 months. The court noted medical evidence that the victim’s bowel control was impaired and that full recovery was considered unlikely. These details formed part of the background to the sentence review; the appeal court’s stated error concerned the length of the suspended portion and the weight given to deterrence.
The court said compensation should not be made a condition of suspending a prison term, as that could allow an offender with means to avoid custody that someone without means would have to serve. It said compensation could instead be ordered under section 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993.
The replacement sentence suspends one year for two years to incentivise rehabilitation. The suspension carries the other terms set by the Circuit Court, except the compensation condition. The Court of Appeal separately ordered payment of €25,000 in annual instalments of €5,000, with the first due 12 months after Doherty’s release from custody. The judgment does not state the date of release.