The Court of Appeal has dismissed Patrick McAuliffe’s appeal against sentences for stealing €300 and robbing an 83-year-old man of €2,300 in Cork.
McAuliffe pleaded guilty and was convicted at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 24 October 2016. He received concurrent five-year sentences on 1 November 2016, with the final 12 months suspended on conditions for two years after his release. The appeal court said the resulting net custodial term of four years could reasonably be described as lenient and would not be altered.
The offences took place on 12 November 2015. The judgment said the victim, John Mannix, was preparing to board a bus at Grand Parade when McAuliffe took €300 from him. Both men boarded the bus. After Mannix got off, McAuliffe followed him, confronted him and threw him to the ground before taking a further €2,300.
The court described the first offence as opportunistic and the second as premeditated and carefully executed. It said Mannix’s age would have been obvious and made him an easy victim. He sustained soft tissue injuries and was severely traumatised. The judgment said he would not leave home unaccompanied, had lost interest in his business and had suffered a major loss of independence.
The appeal challenged the sentencing judge’s assessment of the offences as being at the higher end of the gravity scale and argued that insufficient weight had been given to McAuliffe’s guilty plea. The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had recognised the plea, McAuliffe’s difficult circumstances, his alcohol and heroin addiction and his expressed remorse.
The court said the guilty plea also spared the traumatised victim from having to attend court and give evidence. It considered a seven-year headline sentence appropriate for offences of this nature, taking account of McAuliffe’s extensive previous convictions. It dismissed the appeal.