Michael Sheehan withdraws appeal against eight-year sentence

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

Michael Sheehan withdrew his appeal against an eight-year sentence after the Court of Appeal warned that it could increase the sentence as well as reduce it. The proceedings were reported on 10 December 2018.

Sheehan pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and to two counts of burglary. The offences occurred on 25 September 2014, when three elderly men were knocked down in County Clare after a burglary spree.

Former Limerick hurler Eric Ryan, then 79, lost a leg. William Barry, a retired garda in his 70s, suffered bleeding to the brain, while Dermot O’Brien, also in his 70s, escaped injury. Sheehan had admitted consuming eight bottles of cider and a naggin of vodka in the hours before the incident.

On 1 October 2015, Judge Tom O’Donnell sentenced Sheehan at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to five years’ imprisonment for the dangerous driving and a concurrent 12-month term for the two burglaries. The five-year term was consecutive to a three-year sentence the judge had imposed for another burglary in May 2014.

Sheehan was due to appeal the severity of his sentence on 10 December 2018. Before the hearing, Court of Appeal president Mr Justice George Birmingham warned his lawyers about the court’s power to increase sentences. He referred to a judgment on home burglaries and burglary sprees, as well as Sheehan’s driving and its consequences.

After taking instructions, Sheehan’s barrister, Keith Spencer BL, said his client wished to withdraw the appeal. The court ordered it withdrawn.