Robert Murphy's sentence increased following appeal

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

The Court of Appeal found Robert Murphy's overall sentences unduly lenient in a judgment delivered by Mr. Justice Sheehan. The proceedings were reported on 12 June 2015, also the judgment date.

A later judgment excerpt included in the supplied record states that the Court of Appeal increased his sentence. The excerpt is truncated and does not establish the complete replacement terms.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court had imposed an overall sentence of nine years imprisonment, with the final five years suspended on rehabilitation terms, on 10 October 2014. A post-release supervision order required Murphy to comply with all Probation Service directions for two years after release.

He received two years for unlawful possession of a flick knife on 14 May 2012. The judgment records that Murphy said he possessed it for protection and alleged he had recently been stabbed.

For unlawful possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances, he received six years with the final four suspended on the rehabilitation terms. The firearm incident occurred on 22 July 2012. Because he committed that offence while on bail for the knife offence, the firearm sentence was consecutive to the two-year knife sentence.

The arson sentence was seven years with the final five suspended on terms. Murphy pleaded to an offence of recklessly setting fire to a house occupied by a couple and their child.

The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that insufficient weight had been given to the householder's superficial shotgun wounds and the danger the fire posed to a mother, her boyfriend and her four-year-old child. The court found that the sentencing judge had given insufficient weight to serious aggravating factors in both offences.