The Court of Appeal has quashed a wholly suspended sentence for assault causing harm and resentenced the accused to three years’ imprisonment, with the final 12 months suspended for one year on condition of good behaviour.
The court ruled on 23 January 2025 that the original sentence was unduly lenient. The Director of Public Prosecutions had applied for a review under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, arguing that the sentence did not reflect the gravity of the assault and that a custodial element was needed.
The assault happened in the early hours of 29 May 2022 on O’Connell Street in Limerick. The judgment says Ms O’Brien was walking home from work with a friend when she asked a group of men to stop using a homophobic slur. The accused then shouted abuse at her, grabbed her by the hair and repeatedly punched her in the face and head. A passerby intervened. Ms O’Brien suffered a fractured nose and other facial injuries, and described physical and psychological effects in a victim impact statement.
The accused initially told gardaí that he had acted in self-defence. After viewing CCTV, he accepted that it showed what had happened. The judgment also records a Snapchat message sent on the afternoon of the assault: “two to put her down, two to put her out”.
At the original sentencing, the judge set a four-year headline sentence, reduced it to three years and suspended the whole term for three years. The suspension was conditional on paying Ms O’Brien €3,000 within two years. The Court of Appeal accepted the four-year headline sentence and said the one-year reduction for mitigation was within range. It held, however, that suspending the entire term gave too much weight to mitigation and failed to reflect general deterrence. The court said the custody threshold had been passed and the accused’s likely loss of his Defence Forces employment did not justify avoiding custody in this case.
The Court of Appeal resentenced the accused to three years, suspending the final year on condition that he be of good behaviour for one year. It said the compensation could be paid to the injured party but did not make payment a condition of the suspension.