The Court of Appeal has increased the prison term to be served by a man who brandished a knife during a violent disorder that ended in the fatal stabbing of Cameron Blair. The court quashed his sentence of five years’ imprisonment, with the final three years suspended, and resentenced him to five years with the final two years suspended on the same terms as before.
The Director of Public Prosecutions sought the review under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, arguing that the sentence was unduly lenient. The respondent had pleaded guilty to violent disorder and producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury. He did not inflict the fatal wound, which was delivered by a co-accused.
The offences arose from events at a student party in rented accommodation on Bandon Road, Cork, on 16 January 2020. The judgment records that the respondent and two others armed themselves with knives. During the disorder outside the house, the respondent brandished a large kitchen knife and threatened those present. The court said the occupants experienced “pure terror” and found his moral culpability was high.
The sentencing judge set a seven-year headline sentence for violent disorder, reduced it to five years after considering mitigation, then suspended the final three years. A concurrent two-year sentence was imposed for producing the article. The judge cited the respondent’s early guilty plea, youth, previous good character and prospects for rehabilitation. The respondent was 18 at the time of the crime.
The Court of Appeal said the seven-year headline sentence and the reduction to five years were not in issue and were not departures from the norm. It focused on whether suspending three years of the five-year term was justified. The court accepted evidence that the respondent was at low risk of reoffending and had engaged with probation and rehabilitation. But it found that too much weight had been placed on rehabilitation, given the modest probation intervention considered necessary.
The court held that suspending such a substantial part of the sentence was an error of principle and that a greater custodial element was required. It quashed the sentence on the violent disorder count and imposed five years’ imprisonment with the final two years suspended. The suspended term remains subject to the same conditions imposed by the sentencing court. The source does not state that the separate concurrent sentence for producing the article was quashed.