The Court of Appeal increased Michael Cummins’s sentence for false imprisonment after finding that a two-year term did not reflect the seriousness of an incident involving two boys, aged 13 and 15. It imposed a four-year sentence and suspended the final two years for two years, subject to conditions.
The Director of Public Prosecutions brought the appeal under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, seeking review of the sentence imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 27 February 2018. Cummins had pleaded guilty to five offences arising from events on 9 August 2017: theft, burglary, threatening to cause serious harm, false imprisonment and assault. The trial court imposed sentence on the false-imprisonment count and marked the other offences as taken into consideration.
The Court of Appeal said the boys were outside one boy’s home when Cummins approached them, took one boy’s phone and demanded that pictures be deleted. He punched the boy three times, made racist remarks and later required both boys to enter the house. The court said Cummins removed the keys, locking them inside, and threatened harm, including blowing up the house. One boy escaped by jumping from a first-floor window. The other could leave when gardaí arrived and negotiated access.
The DPP argued that the sentencing judge gave too much weight to mitigation and too little to aggravating features, including the boys’ ages, the racial element, the threats, the escape and Cummins’s record of more than 230 previous convictions. The appeal court agreed that the original sentence was inadequate. It said a sentence for an offence of this kind could not be less than six years before mitigation was considered.
The court also considered Cummins’s guilty plea, drug-induced paranoia, wider mental-health difficulties, progress in addressing addiction and prospects of rehabilitation. It said four years was appropriate after taking those factors into account, but suspended the final two years to support rehabilitation while providing for supervision and the possibility of a return to custody if he reoffended or failed to comply.
The suspended portion was subject to a two-year bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, compliance with directions from the Probation and Welfare Service, and completion of drug-treatment courses, including residential courses, if directed and required by that service.