Mark McCarthy’s prison sentence increased to 15 years

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal increased Mark McCarthy’s prison sentence from nine years to 15 years following a tiger kidnapping incident at Forest Park, Drogheda, on 1 August 2011. The proceedings were reported on 23 March 2018.

The Director of Public Prosecutions applied to have the original sentence reviewed as unduly lenient. It had been imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 19 May 2017 and dated from 13 November 2013.

An offer of a plea was made and accepted in the weeks before a trial that had been fixed for 28 February 2017.

In a judgment delivered on 23 March 2018 by Mr Justice Birmingham, the Court of Appeal found the nine-year sentence clearly inadequate and unduly lenient, despite significant mitigating factors. It quashed that sentence and substituted 15 years’ imprisonment, dated from 30 November 2013.

The judgment said the incident involved Warren Nawn, his wife Jean Marie Nawn and their ten-week-old baby. Raiders restrained the family and took them to a farmyard in Co Dublin, where Mr Nawn was threatened with harm to his wife and baby if he did not cooperate.