Limerick man to serve less jail time over role in “most frightening incident” of victim’s life

A LIMERICK man will serve less jail time for his part in two separate violent disorder offences, which involved the use of a slash hook, a knife and broken bottles, after the Court of Appeal ruled that his age at the time of offending was a salient mitigating factor. 

The now 20-year-old, who can't be named because he was a child when he first came before the courts, was jailed by Judge Colin Daly for three-and-a-half years with the final six months suspended for a period of three years, for his part in an attack on the occupants of a house on the outskirts of Limerick city on August 22, 2021. 

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Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard that the defendant, who was 16 at the time, was part of a group that attempted to gain entry to the dwelling by kicking a lock on a door, before they eventually climbed into the property via a rear kitchen window. 

A number of occupants sustained injuries in the violent attack, with the court hearing that the group armed themselves with weapons including a knife, broken bottles and a frying pan. 

One of the victims described it as “the most frightening incident of my life” as he thought he would be stabbed. 

At that same sitting of the circuit court, the defendant also received a consecutive two-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended, after pleading guilty to engaging in a separate incident of violent disorder while he was on bail, at a filling station outside Limerick City, on August 7, 2023. 

As part of a group of men, the defendant attacked a car with a slash hook in what Judge Daly described as a “frenzied attack in broad daylight at a busy service station and the risk to the general public was considerable”. 

He subsequently appealed these sentences before the Court of Appeal. 

In delivering the court’s judgement this Monday, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy noted that the appellant had been a minor at the time of the offending and had just turned 18 when he was sentenced, describing this as “a salient factor” which must constitute a mitigating factor. 

Mr Justice McCarthy noted that a home had been intruded upon by a group, with injuries suffered by three of the people in the house. He went on to say that at least one of the group produced weapons, namely a frying pan and a knife, while another person smashed a bottle, with injuries suffered by the occupants of the house including lacerations. 

Mr Justice McCarthy said that the sentencing judge had fallen into error by setting a headline sentence of seven years. He said that an appropriate headline sentence for both this offence and the offence at the filling station was three years, reduced after mitigation to two years. He said that the two-year sentence for the filling station offence was to run consecutively to the other sentence but be suspended for two years, on condition that the appellant enter into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. 

In summary, the judge ordered that the appellant serve two years in prison.