The Court of Appeal has resentenced Michael Delany after finding errors in principle in sentences imposed for violent disorder and the unlawful seizure of a car. It imposed 12 months’ imprisonment for violent disorder and six years for unlawful seizure, with the final year of the latter sentence suspended.
The court also directed that sentences on the second bill run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the violent disorder sentence. It said the cumulative term was seven years, including the suspended year. The violent disorder sentence dates from 27 October 2021. The other sentences begin when the preceding sentence lawfully ends.
The case arose from two incidents. In August 2018, three topless people were seen on CCTV outside a family home on Anne Street, Waterford, where damage was found. The court said Delany was among those seen with items in their hands. He pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
In June 2021, while on bail in the first case and disqualified from driving, Delany assaulted a man who had stopped to help him and a woman. The judgment said Delany repeatedly punched and kicked the man, took his car and drove it at him, forcing him to jump clear. The victim’s impact statement described broken teeth, facial injuries, vision problems, sleep disturbance and difficulty returning to work as a bus driver. DNA matching the victim was found on Delany’s footwear.
The Circuit Criminal Court had imposed an 18-month sentence for violent disorder, suspended in full, and a four-year sentence for unlawful seizure, with the final year suspended. It also imposed three years for assault causing harm. Other four-month sentences related to dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving without a licence and failing to provide a specimen. The sentences on the second bill were consecutive to the suspended violent disorder sentence.
The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that the sentences were unduly lenient, including because the full suspension of the violent disorder term undermined the required consecutive sentencing and because the unlawful seizure sentence did not reflect the offence’s gravity. The appeal court agreed that the full suspension was an error and that unlawful seizure warranted a higher headline sentence, citing the assault, Delany’s record, offending while on bail and the need for deterrence.
The appeal court quashed the sentences for violent disorder and unlawful seizure and resentenced those offences. It left the assault causing harm sentence in place, saying there was no practical need to quash it. The court set an eight-year headline sentence for unlawful seizure, reduced by two years for mitigation, including a €7,000 compensation payment. It also considered evidence of Delany’s participation in education, mediation and addiction services in prison as signs of the beginnings of rehabilitation. The final year of the unlawful seizure sentence was suspended to encourage rehabilitation and support a safe return to the community.