The Court of Appeal has quashed a one-year prison sentence imposed on Stephen Ennis for assaulting a doctor in a hospital and resentenced him to three years’ imprisonment, with the final six months suspended for one year on specified conditions.
The court gave credit for time served and backdated the sentence to 12 May 2022. It said Ennis must follow all directions of the Probation Service during the suspension. The decision was delivered on 24 May 2022 on an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993.
Ennis had pleaded guilty to assaulting a person providing medical services, contrary to section 19(1)(a) of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, as amended. The original sentence was imposed on 30 September 2020 and backdated to the offence date, 7 March 2020.
The judgment said Ennis was taken to Saint James’s Hospital after collapsing outside Pearse Street Garda Station. While a doctor was taking blood, Ennis removed a butterfly needle from his wrist and charged at the doctor holding it. The doctor was stabbed three times, sustaining puncture wounds to his back, and also suffered bruising.
The court described the attack as serious and said it had a profound impact on the doctor, who gave up his ambition to pursue a career in emergency medicine. It also noted the need for general deterrence to protect people considering frontline work.
The Director argued that the sentencing judge had given insufficient weight to the attack’s violence and impact, and too much weight to Ennis’s lack of memory of the incident. Ennis’s side argued that the judge had properly considered the aggravating factors and that the sentence was not so lenient as to justify an increase. The appeal court held that the original term was a substantial departure from the appropriate sentence. It said self-induced intoxication was no defence to this basic-intent offence, while noting that committing it with full knowledge could have increased moral culpability.
The court set a four-year headline sentence, reduced it to three years in light of mitigation, including the guilty plea. It also cited Ennis’s 72 previous convictions and said these reduced the mitigating weight available. The final six months were suspended to incentivise rehabilitation as he addressed his drug addiction.