The Court of Appeal increased Paul McMenamy’s sentence for assault occasioning serious harm from six years, with the final year suspended, to 10 years’ imprisonment, suspending the final two years on similar conditions.
The court delivered its ex tempore judgment on 18 December 2014 on an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence imposed by Dublin Circuit Court on 9 December 2013. The assault, to which McMenamy pleaded guilty, was committed on 5 February 2012 against Nicola Murray, then his partner and fiancée.
The judgment said the couple had been living together and that two of Murray’s young children were in the house during the episode. The court described the assault as prolonged and sufficiently noticeable to be heard or observed by neighbours. Murray suffered a subdural haematoma and other injuries, including extensive bruising. She was in hospital for months and, the court said, was left with significant long-term and probably permanent effects, including a change in personality.
The court also treated McMenamy’s delay in arranging hospital help as a serious aggravating feature. He called ambulance services but did not follow through, and Murray did not receive hospital treatment until later that afternoon, the judgment said. The court noted previous convictions for assaults on two former girlfriends, including an earlier suspended sentence and a later prison term partly suspended.
Counsel for McMenamy argued that his guilty plea carried particular mitigating weight because Murray could not give evidence about the incident due to her injuries, leaving his account alongside inferences from other known facts. The court accepted that the plea evidenced remorse. It also considered testimonials and references, and said McMenamy had engaged in education and insight processes in prison and had got on well there.
Under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, the DPP had to show that the sentence was unduly lenient: significantly too low and outside the range open to the trial judge. The Court of Appeal said that, considered in isolation, the sentence for the assault was within the zone of acceptability. But it found that the previous similar convictions and disregard for Murray’s health after the attack made the sentence unduly lenient. It therefore substituted a 10-year sentence, with two years suspended on conditions similar to those set by the Circuit Court.