The Court of Appeal has dismissed Oliver Kierans’s appeals against his convictions and prison sentences for manslaughter and two firearm offences.
Kierans was convicted on 27 February 2015 of manslaughter, having been charged with murder, and of possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. He received concurrent sentences of nine, eight and 12 years respectively. The Court of Appeal judgment was delivered on 12 April 2019.
The court rejected three grounds challenging the trial judge’s directions to the jury. Kierans argued that the jury had not been properly directed on intention and manslaughter, on how to assess his account of possessing the firearm for a lawful purpose, and on the charge involving intent to endanger life.
The appeal court said the jury charge had to be considered as a whole. It concluded that the jury had been told the prosecution had to prove every element beyond reasonable doubt, that the burden remained with the prosecution, and that three verdicts were open on the murder charge: guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty. It found no error in the directions on the firearm charges and dismissed the appeal against conviction.
The court also rejected the sentence appeal. It said the trial judge had placed the manslaughter at the lower end of the upper range for gross-negligence manslaughter, set a 12-year headline sentence and reduced it to nine years after mitigation. The appeal court noted aggravating features, including the use of a firearm, Kierans’s reloading it after his wife was killed, and his leaving without seeking medical or emergency help. It found the sentence within the trial judge’s discretion and detected no error in principle.
The court upheld the eight-year sentence for possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances, describing the offence as closely connected to the manslaughter and assessing it in the higher range of seriousness.
On the 12-year sentence for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, the court referred to CCTV footage showing Kierans holding and checking the firearm after it failed to fire when aimed at Garda Fay. The judgment said a barman ducked behind the bar, and that the incident put an unarmed Garda in fear of his life. The court considered the offence to be in the upper range and stressed general deterrence in cases involving firearms used or threatened against Gardaí.
The appeal against sentence was dismissed. The original concurrent sentences therefore remain in place.