Court of Appeal: Man who hit shop-worker with a meat-cleaver given 18-month custodial sentence

About this case:

• Judgment:
  External link

The Court of Appeal found that there had been an error in principle in the leniency of the original sentence, and accordingly imposed a sentence of four years with the last two years and six months suspended.

Background

In July 2015, Mr Singh, the injured party, was working serving customers in a store in Blanchardstown.

Armed with a meat cleaver and a saw blade, Mr Patrick Whelan ran in and shouted at Mr Singh to open the till.

He had a weapon in his hand and either before or at the same time as demanding the till be opened he struck Mr Singh on the right side of the head causing him to bleed. Mr Whelan then picked up a sweeping brush from behind the counter so that he had a weapon in each hand.

He threatened Mr Singh, caused him to fear for his life and shouted at him to open the till.

Mr Whelan took €600 from the opened till and left the shop. At this stage, Mr Singh could set off the panic alarm.

Mr Whelan was arrested shortly after the incident.

Mr Singh received stitches in hospital, and the injury to his head caused him to be out of work for three weeks.

He could not sleep on his right side, had recurring nightmares, had to cut his hair and often wore a hat – which had a psychological effect on him due to his religious beliefs. In the process of re-sentencing Mr Whelan, the Court took into consideration that Mr Singh, as a Sikh, suffered the humiliation of having his hair cut.

After the incident, Mr Singh was unable to do evening work as he no longer felt safe; he lost his second job and incurred loss of earnings of just over €2,000 and medical expenses of €400.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court

Mr Whelan entered a guilty plea to three offences in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court:

A nolle prosequi was entered in relation to two counts of possession of knives.

In October 2016, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the robbery and two years for the assault causing harm, to run concurrently. The s. 112 was also considered.

The sentence was suspended in its entirety for four years on the conditions that he:

Court of Appeal

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence on the basis that it was unduly lenient.

The DPP accepted the judge’s placing of the offence as one requiring a sentence of four years in the absence of a plea for the robbery and three years in the absence of a plea for the assault.

The DPP argues that not sufficient weight was given to the violence of the assault and the effect on the victim by suspending the entirety of the sentence.

Delivering the judgment of the three-judge Court, Mr Justice Hedigan stated that the process which should be undertaken by the Court when sentencing had been set out in The People (DPP) v. Byrne IECA 97.

Further, in The People (DPP) v. Stronge IECCA 79; Justice McKechnie set out seven principles which applied in an application for review under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993.

In Stronge it was stated that the relevant cases in this regard were The People (D.P.P.) v. Byrne 1 ILRM 279, The People (D.P.P.) v. McCormack 4 I.R. 356 and The People (D.P.P.) v. Redmond 3 I.R. 390

In the circumstances, Justice Hedigan stated that the Court agreed with the DPP that there had been an error of principle by the learned trial judge.

Mr Whelan engaged in a planned offence in that he came in a stolen car armed with a meat cleaver and a saw blade.

It was a well-planned offence of a violent and threatening nature.

Giving credit for the early plea, Mr Whelan’s lack of previous convictions, his remorse, his acceptance of responsibility; and the fact that he would be going into prison when he thought he had escaped with a suspended sentence.

Allowing for these mitigating factors, the Court imposed a sentence of four years with the last two years and six months suspended subject to the same conditions.