A 64-year-old man who used a metal baseball bat to assault a plain-clothes garda has failed in a bid to have his five-year jail sentence reduced.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in May 2022, Victor Akinlade was unanimously convicted by a jury of violent disorder, assault causing harm and the production of a baseball bat during the course of a dispute.
Akinlade was jailed for five years on the violent disorder charge, for four years on the assault causing harm offence and for a further four years for production of the baseball bat used to assault Garda Jonathan Ryan, who he claimed he thought was "attacking his home".
Akinlade maintained that he never struck Garda Ryan and that his injuries of concussion, a fractured clavicle, bruising to the left arm and a broken finger were “self-inflicted” by first attempting to force the front door open and then tripping over a wall.
At the trial in front of Judge Patricia Ryan, Akinlade submitted that he had been acting in defence either of another person or of his own property under Section 18 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
At the Court of Appeal, Barry M Ward BL, for Akinlade who is a father of six, had argued that there had been a failure to properly consider the mitigating factors in the case. He submitted the sentence was “excessive in all circumstances”.
Mr Ward said the appellant was someone with no previous convictions who was handed a “substantial sentence” of five years.
The trial heard that on May 28, 2018, in the area of Ballyogan Avenue in Carrickmines, Dublin 18, close to Akinlade’s home, two plain-clothes gardaí were on duty in an unmarked patrol car when they observed another male exiting a separate address and decided to search him.
The court heard that Garda Ryan approached the man on a footpath, identified himself as a Garda and deployed a baton before informing the male that he was to be searched under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
However, the man ran from Garda Ryan and jumped over a small wall into the home of the appellant with Garda Ryan in chase shouting “Gardaí, stop, you’re under arrest”. Garda Ryan lost his shoe in pursuit but applied force to the door of Mr Akinlade’s home, as a result of which a glass panel on it shattered, the court heard.
Garda Ryan gave evidence at the trial that he had persistently identified himself as a plain-clothes Garda and that Mr Akinlade was under arrest.
Akinlade, when interviewed, claimed he did not know the Garda was an officer because he did not identify himself and that he was dressed in such a way that the appellant thought he was a “junkie or a Traveller”.
Garda Ryan went away from the door to retrieve his shoe before Akinlade appeared on the scene with the "metal" baseball bat and struck the Garda on the left shoulder, ear and hand.
“His case all along was he went into the hall, his son’s face was bleeding and he understood his house was under attack,” said Mr Ward. He said Akinlade was confronted with “a plain clothes person he perceived was attacking his home”.
“Five years in relation to what he did, I respectfully submit, is excessive and I would ask the court to reduce it to more fairly reflect his circumstances,” said Mr Ward, adding Akinlade has been resident in Ireland for over 40 years and has never been in trouble before.
Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham said that while the sentence imposed had been “a significant one”, the court had not been persuaded that it fell outside the margin of what was available.
He said this had been a serious incident against members of the gardaí acting in the course of their duties.
“Overall, the sentence was not found to be outside the range available to the judge and in those circumstances we dismiss the appeal,” he said.
