The Court of Appeal has upheld a three-year prison sentence imposed on Darren Canning for burgling a Dublin apartment.
Canning pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Court after an incident on March 1, 2015. A passing Luas driver saw him smashing a ground-floor window at an apartment block and alerted the control room. CCTV was then used to monitor him as he climbed through the window, and Gardaí were called.
Officers entered through the broken window and found Canning behind a closed door. When they managed to open it, he rushed at two Gardaí. A struggle followed and pepper spray was used to subdue him.
Canning had a scarf covering his face and was wearing gloves. After his arrest, Gardaí found him with a camera, mobile phone, two bags of jewellery and two cans of beer. The broken window cost about €300 to repair.
At sentencing, Canning was 34 and living with his partner and child, with another child due later that year. He had 67 previous convictions, including 18 for burglary.
His lawyers relied on his early guilty plea and efforts to tackle a longstanding drug addiction. He had engaged with Merchants Quay Ireland, was on a methadone programme and had reduced his methadone intake while in custody. A possible 20-week residential programme through the Fr Peter McVerry Trust was also raised.
The sentencing judge said those steps deserved credit but also treated Canning’s resistance to arrest and substantial record as aggravating factors. A three-year sentence was imposed and backdated to March 1, 2015.
On appeal, the court acknowledged the progress Canning had begun to make and his stated determination to be a good father. However, rehabilitation was still at an early stage when he was sentenced.
The judges found the three-year term proportionate and held that the absence of a specific rehabilitative component did not amount to an error. The appeal was dismissed.