The Supreme Court has dismissed John Faulkner’s appeal against a 12-year prison sentence for a planned burglary targeting an elderly couple at their rural north Cork home, holding that his dangerous attempt to escape was part of the overall offence for sentencing.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Peter Charleton on 25 April 2024, also upheld the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of Faulkner’s appeal. The Supreme Court said the sentencing judge was entitled to consider the burglary as an event that included the planning, the getaway arrangements and Faulkner’s flight from the scene.
The couple, aged 89 and 86, had left home for evening Mass on 19 October 2019. Gardaí, with the couple’s permission, took their place in anticipation of a burglary. Two men entered the house and were arrested. Faulkner, who had driven them from Cork city and waited nearby, fled when he realised they had been caught.
The judgment said evidence described speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, a blind bend taken on the wrong side of the road and bags and items discarded from the car. Faulkner was eventually apprehended after losing control of the vehicle. A jury found him guilty of burglary, dangerous driving and reckless endangerment in April 2021. The trial judge imposed 12 years for burglary, with concurrent sentences of two years each for dangerous driving and endangerment. His driving disqualification was reduced from 20 years to 10 on appeal; the other sentences stood.
The Supreme Court found the burglary had been planned and targeted at vulnerable older people. It said the escape plan was integral to the offence and that Faulkner had put it into operation in a way that endangered other road users. Although the sentences imposed on co-accused are relevant to proportionality, the Court said differences in culpability, criminal records and guilty pleas can justify different sentences. The two men arrested inside the house had pleaded guilty and received seven-year sentences after reductions from headline sentences of nine years.
The Court endorsed the indicative burglary sentencing bands set out in an earlier Court of Appeal decision, Casey and Casey: four to nine years before mitigation for mid-range cases, and nine to 14 years for the highest category. It said that guidance remained appropriate.
The appeal was dismissed. The Court also said judges should generally set a sentence for each offence where there are multiple convictions, while allowing the overall event and the totality of the sentences to be considered.