The Court of Appeal has increased Aaron Brady's sentence for attempting to interfere with witnesses during his capital murder trial from three years to five years' imprisonment.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2026, the court allowed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the sentence for undue leniency. The new five-year term will begin when Brady's existing 14-year robbery sentence legally expires.
Brady had pleaded guilty to embarking on a course of conduct tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice. A separate conspiracy count concerning another witness was taken into consideration.
The offending arose during Brady's 2020 murder trial. While detained in Mountjoy Prison, he had been given exceptional access to a laptop so he could prepare his defence. Gardaí established that he used a mobile phone in April 2020 to record the laptop screen while a video statement from witness Ronan Flynn was playing. Videos of Flynn's statement were subsequently circulated widely on social media while the trial was ongoing. Flynn did not give evidence.
A second strand concerned efforts by another prisoner, Mr Byrne, to influence witness Daniel Cahill. Material from Brady's book of evidence was sent from Byrne's phone to Cahill's cousin. The prosecution accepted that Brady had said he did not want that material circulated.
The Special Criminal Court originally selected a five-year headline sentence, reduced it by one year for Brady's guilty plea and by a further year under the totality principle, producing a three-year consecutive sentence.
The Court of Appeal held that this was a substantial departure from the appropriate sentence. It said attempts to undermine a capital murder prosecution strike at the administration of justice and require significant general deterrence. The absence of actual violence did not place the offending in a lower category.
On re-sentencing, the court selected a nine-year headline term, reduced it to six and a half years for the guilty plea and then to five years to reflect totality with the existing robbery sentence.