The Court of Appeal quashed the sentences imposed on Lee Hutchinson for harassing three gardaí and resentenced him to a total of seven years’ imprisonment, with the final two years suspended for two years after his release.
The court delivered its judgment on 21 October 2024, after Hutchinson appealed sentences imposed by Waterford Circuit Criminal Court on three counts of harassment. The circuit court had imposed concurrent terms of six years on each count, with the final year of each suspended. The appeal court said the sentencing judge had been misinformed that the maximum penalty was 10 years; it was seven years. It quashed the sentences and resentenced Hutchinson.
The court said the harassment campaign ran from 2014 to 2018 and targeted three serving gardaí. It involved letters sent to Garda stations, the Garda Commissioner, victims’ spouses and a school connected to one victim’s child, as well as telephone calls to stations. The appeal court said the letters contained malicious and untruthful allegations, including claims of criminal activity, sexual impropriety and corruption. It described the impact on the victims and their families as significant.
Hutchinson argued that the offending should have been placed in the middle range of seriousness, and that the sentencing judge gave insufficient weight to his guilty pleas and mitigation. The prosecution accepted the error about the maximum sentence but argued the offending belonged at the higher end of gravity.
In resentencing, the court set a headline term of four years on each count, then reduced each to three years to account for mitigation, including the guilty pleas and an apology provided to the appeal court. It treated the pleas as early for sentencing purposes, while noting it could not determine whether they were entered at the first reasonable opportunity because the date the indictment was presented was unknown.
The court ordered the three terms to run consecutively because there were three separate victims, producing an indicative total of nine years. Applying the principle of totality to ensure proportionality, it reduced the total sentence to seven years. The final two years were suspended for two years after release to encourage rehabilitation.
The judgment records that Hutchinson had no previous convictions, though he had received adult cautions relating to two public order incidents. It also noted his work in the prison kitchen and steps towards volunteering in educational activities.