The Court of Appeal has refused the Director of Public Prosecutions more time to seek a review of two consecutive sentences imposed on Gavin Barry in the Circuit Court in Meath.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 5 May 2017, the court said the DPP had not given sufficient justification for missing the statutory deadline. The application concerned permission to bring an undue-leniency review; the court did not decide whether the sentences themselves were unduly lenient.
Barry was sentenced on 14 March 2017 on two bills of indictment. On the first, involving two counts of assault arising from an incident on 1 December 2016, he received three years’ imprisonment with 18 months suspended. On the second, following a jury conviction for an assault at the Headford Arms Hotel in Kells on 2 September 2016, he received three years with the final 12 months suspended. The sentences were consecutive.
The DPP’s application relied on an affidavit stating that, due to inadvertence, concern about the sentences did not reach the directing officer until 11 April, just as the initial 28-day period was expiring. The affidavit said that contacting counsel and the State Solicitor for County Meath was then delayed by the Easter vacation. The decision to seek review was made on 3 May.
For the DPP, counsel submitted that the sentences appeared lenient and that the interests of justice favoured allowing the review to proceed. The draft review notice cited the use of a weapon, premeditation, lying in wait, intent and the impact on the injured parties as aggravating factors.
The court reviewed the legal principles governing extensions of time, including the need to decide applications according to the justice of the particular case. It also stressed the importance of prompt action and finality in sentencing. The court noted that the decision to seek review came well beyond the initial 28-day period and close to the end of the maximum 56-day period permitted by law.
It concluded that inadvertence in the circumstances was not enough to justify an extension and refused the DPP’s application.