Unintended consequence of criminal behaviour is aggravating factor for sentencing purposes

Court of Appeal accedes to DPP's application to review sentence for participating in the activities of a criminal organisation on grounds of undue leniency, finding that: (a) it was not entirely irrelevant that a murder was facilitated by the respondent's acts of assistance, even if this was not intended or foreseen by him and the subsequent murder was therefore an aggravating factor for the purpose of sentencing; (b) murder is one of the range of offences frequently committed by drug trafficking gangs, such that it was not unreasonable to consider that when a man gave specific acts of assistance to such a criminal organisation he was taking a risk that his assistance may be used to facilitate murder as well as the day-to-day activities of moving, packaging and selling drugs; (c) the impact of this on the penalty should not be overstated where the respondent had not been charged with murder; and (d) the court should take into account the seriousness with which the Oireachtas views this type of offence.