The Court of Appeal has resentenced Patrick Casey for robbing a 16-year-old while on bail, ordering that one year of a three-year sentence be served in custody and suspending the remaining two years for six years.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence as unduly lenient. Casey had been convicted by a jury of robbing €15 from the teenager. The trial judge imposed three years consecutive to sentences for earlier offences, but suspended the entire term for six years.
The robbery happened on 21 March 2015. Casey approached the teenager, who was walking with two friends, said he had a knife and demanded money. The teenager handed over €15. Casey then warned one of the friends not to call gardaí. Police later found Casey with €15, a retractable Stanley knife and a ring stolen from an inhabited caravan.
At the time, Casey was on bail for two earlier offences, including a robbery of a pregnant woman and a weapons offence. The appeal concerned the sentence for the €15 robbery only; it did not challenge sentencing for the caravan burglary or criminal damage. Casey had pleaded guilty to possession of a knife and criminal damage, but contested the robbery and was convicted after trial.
The Court of Appeal said the law required an offence committed while on bail to be treated as an aggravating factor and generally required a consecutive sentence. It found the circumstances relied on by the trial judge—including the absence of physical violence, the pleas on other charges and Casey’s tragic family background—were not exceptional enough to justify suspending the full sentence.
The court held that the trial judge had made an error of principle and resentenced Casey. It kept the three-year term consecutive to the sentences imposed for convictions under Bills No. 3/2015 and 1/2015, but suspended the final two years for six years on the same terms. The suspension period runs from 12 February 2016. The judgment does not specify the conditions attached to the suspended term.