Mark Taylor’s combined sentence increased to eight years on appeal

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

The Court of Appeal increased Mark Taylor’s combined sentence to eight years, with the final three years suspended, after the Director of Public Prosecutions challenged the original sentence as unduly lenient. Mr Justice Michael Peart delivered the judgment on 5 May 2017.

Taylor had pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful use of a mechanically propelled vehicle, one count of criminal damage and two counts of endangerment.

On 16 February 2015, Judge James O'Donoghue sentenced him at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The resulting four-year term was to follow a separate three-year sentence imposed at Naas Circuit Court. The appeal court said the sentences under review commenced on 6 June 2015, when Taylor ceased serving the Naas sentence.

The appeal court left the concurrent three-year sentences for unlawful vehicle use and criminal damage on the first bill unchanged. It found the one-year sentences for each endangerment offence on the second bill were a significant departure from the appropriate sentence. It held that each merited a five-year headline sentence, to run concurrently with each other and consecutively to the sentences on the first bill.

For three years after release, Taylor was to be supervised by the probation service and comply with its directions. The court took mitigating factors into account when suspending the final three years.

The judgment summarised Taylor’s written submissions about the first incident: on 19 June 2013, he drove a stolen Lexus into the rear driver’s side of a Garda car at a service station. Both officers were injured and taken to hospital. Garda Niland required neck surgery and was out of work for over a year; his colleague was off work for about four months.