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Identification of accused was adequate in conviction relating to altercation in restaurant
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Court of Appeal: 1) dismisses appeal of convictions for producing a broken bottle to intimidate another, threat to kill and criminal damage arising from an altercation in a restaurant, on the grounds that the identification of the accused was adequate and the trial judge was correct not to rule the evidence of a Garda - who had identified the accused on the night in question - to have been inadmissible; and 2) dismisses sentencing appeal of overall term of imprisonment of six years with final eighteen months suspended, on the grounds that headline sentence of seven years discounted to six years for the reason identified by the trial judge was appropriate to reflect the gravity of the offence, having regard to the offender’s moral culpability and the harm done.
Criminal law – conviction appeal and sentencing appeal – identification – altercation in restaurant – unlawfully producing a broken bottle to intimidate another person contrary to section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990 – threat to kill contrary to section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 – criminal damage contrary to section 2(1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1991 – overall sentence of six years imprisonment with final eighteen months suspended – whether the trial judge erred in principle in ruling that Garda Maher was entitled to give evidence identifying the appellant from the CCTV footage – whether the trial judge erred in principle in stating to the jury that Garda Maher had identified the appellant from CCTV footage – trial judge erred in the course of his charge by implying that the person giving his name as Paul McCarthy on MacCurtain Street was the appellant – the trial judge was correct not to rule the evidence of Garda Maher to have been inadmissible – conviction appeal dismissed – headline sentence of seven years discounted to six years for the reason identified by the trial judge was in our view appropriate to reflect the gravity of the offence, having regard to the offender’s moral culpability and the harm done – sentencing appeal dismissed.
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