Wayne Ellis loses firearms offence sentence challenge

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

Wayne Ellis lost his constitutional challenge to mandatory minimum sentencing for a firearms offence in the Court of Appeal on 31 July 2017.

The court held that the Oireachtas could set sentencing parameters and dismissed his appeal against the High Court’s refusal to declare the provision unconstitutional.

Ellis had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for possessing a sawn-off shotgun, after the Court of Appeal found that the sentence could not be suspended.