The Court of Appeal has replaced a manslaughter sentence of seven and a half years, with its final 18 months suspended, with a sentence of six years and nine months’ imprisonment.
The court allowed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to review the sentence as unduly lenient. It said the application concerned only the suspension; the DPP accepted that the original headline sentence of eight and a half years and its reduction to seven and a half years were appropriate.
The respondent had been charged with murder but was convicted of manslaughter by a jury. The offence followed a fight in the Loughlinstown area of Dublin on 14 or 15 October 2019, during which the respondent killed Derek Reddin with a knife he was carrying. The judgment records evidence that Reddin and a companion were there to attack the respondent. Evidence about whether a baseball bat featured in the fight was unclear.
At the original sentencing in July 2023, the judge suspended the final 18 months because of reports concerning one of the respondent’s children. The Court of Appeal said the reports, particularly those concerning the younger daughter, were concerning but did not show the level of extreme concern the court sometimes encounters. It found no evidential basis requiring or justifying suspension of 20% of the sentence.
The appeal court said that where particular circumstances affecting a prisoner’s children are relied on, they should be supported by clear, focused evidence and considered with other mitigating factors. It also said the children’s circumstances should not be considered in isolation from the wider sentencing picture.
The court did not simply remove the suspension and leave the seven-and-a-half-year term in place. It reasoned that the children’s difficulties and the respondent’s role in their upbringing formed part of the broader mitigation. It considered that, without suspending part of the sentence, the trial judge likely would have made a greater allowance for mitigation.
The appeal court quashed the Central Criminal Court sentence and substituted six years and nine months’ imprisonment, backdated to 15 June 2023 to account for time spent in custody before the respondent was admitted to bail.