The Court of Appeal has dismissed Dylan Cahill’s appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed for firearm, ammunition and explosive-substance offences, while varying the order to credit him with 55 days spent in custody before taking up bail.
The sentence was imposed by the Special Criminal Court on 26 June 2017. Cahill received six years’ imprisonment, with the final year suspended, leaving five years to be served. The Court of Appeal said that five-year net term was the mandatory presumptive minimum and fell within the available range.
The offences arose after Gardaí stopped a car at Glenfarne, County Leitrim, on 13 May 2015. The court said the stop took place at a routine checkpoint by uniformed Gardaí, against a background of reports of a “drive away” from a filling station. Cahill owned and drove the vehicle. A front-seat passenger, referred to in the judgment as Mr Burke and, for convenience, as a co-accused, was also in the car. A plastic bag in the passenger footwell contained a .38 calibre Colt semiautomatic pistol, ammunition and two improvised explosive devices.
At the sentence hearing, evidence was presented, apparently by prior agreement, that the items were being transported in furtherance of the activities of the IRA, which the court described as an illegal organisation. The Special Criminal Court used a starting point of seven and a half years, then reduced the term to six years and suspended the final year.
Cahill argued on appeal that his sentence was unjustifiably higher than the co-accused’s sentence of three and a half years, with the final six months suspended. The co-accused had been sentenced in the Circuit Criminal Court for possession of the improvised explosive devices. The Court of Appeal rejected the comparison, noting that the co-accused pleaded to an explosive-substance count while Cahill pleaded to a firearms count under section 27A of the Firearms Act. Different sentencing regimes applied, including a statutory presumptive minimum and firearms sentencing guidance in Cahill’s case. The court also noted that evidence linking the transaction to the IRA had been given in Cahill’s case, but not for the co-accused.
The court said the Special Criminal Court had applied the appropriate sentencing approach and accounted for mitigation, including Cahill’s youth, good character, lack of previous convictions, cooperation with Gardaí to a certain extent, plea and rehabilitation prospects. It found no error in principle and dismissed the appeal. It nevertheless varied the sentencing order to give Cahill credit for the 55 days in custody before bail.