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THE COURT OF Appeal will not review Wayne Dundon’s prison sentence for making threats to kill and intimidating witnesses despite an appeal by prosecutors that his six year sentence was “unduly lenient”.
Dundon (37) of Lenihan Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, was found guilty by the Special Criminal Court in 2012 of threatening Alice Collins that he would kill or cause serious harm to her sons Gareth Collins and Jimmy Collins at Hyde Avenue, Limerick on September 30 2010.
The non-jury court also found him guilty of the intimidation of potential prosecution witnesses Alice and April Collins with the intention of obstructing the course of justice on the same occasion.
Special Criminal Court
The three judge Special Criminal Court sentenced him to six years imprisonment on April 18 2012.
Wayne’s younger brother John (33), with an address at Hyde Road, Limerick had also been found guilty of threatening to kill April Collins at Hyde Road on the weekend of April 3rd and 4th 2011.
He was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
The Director of Public Prosecutions unsuccessfully sought a review of Wayne Dundon’s sentence today/yesterday on grounds that it was “unduly lenient”.
Speaking on behalf of the Court of Appeal today, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the three-judge court had decided not to accede to the Director’s application.
Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the court would not be reviewing Dundon’s sentence and detailed reasons for its decision would be given at a later date.
Counsel for the DPP, Shane Costelloe SC, moved the appeal on grounds of how the non-jury court dealt with the question of the crimes’ impact on the victims as well as Dundon’s relevant previous conviction.
Victim Impact Statement
Mr Costelloe said the Special Criminal Court didn’t even consider whether a written Victim Impact Statement could be allowed as a submission and had taken the view that it didn’t have to consider the impact of the crimes on the victims at all.
Having declined to return to court to give an oral Victim Impact Statement, Mr Costelloe said the injured parties completed a written statement which was objected to by the defence.
The Special Criminal Court upheld the defence’s objection.
There was a statutory provision for somebody to come to court and give oral evidence but if they declined to do so submissions could be made, Mr Costelloe said and he submitted that the Victim Impact Statement amounted to a submission.
When asked how matters of fact in such a statement could be decided, Mr Costelloe said by way of replying submissions from the defence.
Victims did not want to return to court
Mr Justice John Edwards remarked that if the victims didn’t want to return to court to give evidence that was the prosecution’s problem.
When Mr Justice George Birmingham remarked to Mr Costelloe that if he wanted to hear from the victims he had to call them to the witness box, counsel replied that the legislation allowed for submissions.
He submitted that a document could be handed into court, replying submissions could be made and the court could decide what weight to give to factual matters.
Furthermore, the document could have assisted the court in fixing the offence on a scale.
Secondly, Mr Costelloe said there was no indication that the Special Criminal Court took into account the fact that Wayne Dundon had a relevant previous conviction for making a threat to kill.
The court heard that the threat to kill or cause serious injury was made against a named barman and was “followed through”.
Mr Costelloe said the Special Criminal Court remembered that John Dundon had a relevant previous conviction but appears to have forgotten that Wayne Dundon had as well and gave him one less year in prison than had been imposed for his previous conviction.
That should permit the court to revisit the sentence that was imposed, Mr Costelloe said.
Giving evidence ’put the fear of God’ into her
Dundon’s barrister, Michael Bowman SC, submitted that Alice Collins gave evidence during the trial that the threat had ‘put the fear of God’ into her and she had changed the way she answered the door to her home.
Mr Bowman cited a District Court Judge who described victim impact evidence as a class of hearsay.
In circumstances where the prosecution were unable to call the individuals and the defence had objected to the admission of their victim impact evidence, Mr Bowman said the court was perfectly entitled to take the view that it did when the objection was raised.
He said it was inconcievable that all three judges of the Special Criminal Court had forgotten all of the prosecution’s evidence in relation to Wayne Dundon but not John Dundon and sat there mute while the presiding judge, Mr Justice Paul Butler, read his judgment.
Mr Bowman said Mr Justice Butler was the second most senior judge of the High Court. He had presided alongside the most senior Circuit Court judge and both had been sitting on the non-jury court since 2003.
He said the six year sentence could not be seen as a radical departure and could not be viewed as out of the ordinary or lenient.
Security presence at court
There was a heightened security presence in court for the hearing including four armed gardaí.
The Dundon brothers had lodged appeals against their convictions and, although listed for hearing, they were adjourned today.
Mr Justice Birmingham said Wayne Dundon’s appeal against conviction was not in a position to proceed. A motion was being drafted by his lawyers relating to the admission of additional evidence “so that has to go back,” he said.
As a result, John Dundon’s appeal against conviction was also put back because “they should be dealt with at the same time,” he said.
The court made clear that John Dundon’s appeal wasn’t being delayed indefinitely.
A time might come when that appeal has to proceed even if Wayne wasn’t ready at that stage, the judge said.
Both appeals were put back to the next list to fix dates.
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Builders with a conscience?… the council will make the rules to suit themselves…how many floodplain objections were ignored during the boom when brown envelopes were packeted!
@Winston Smith:
‘Builders with a conscience’
Their objection was based on the low number of units. Sounds like greed to me.
Exactly Daniel didn’t you detect the irony and spot the question mark???
@Winston Smith:
Sure, I’m fully in agreement with you Winston.
No story on the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia dropping bombs on a funeral in Yemen yesterday that killed and injured 700 people or are war crimes only reported on when it is committed by our supposed enemies??
@Derek Durkin, UK are not involved in any of the activities in Yemen.
Where do you think the Saudis source a lot of their weapons?
The planed development includes a lot of green spaces which obviously not going down well with the backers
I visited a few new build developments in Dublin yesterday. Green spaces are a thing of the past, cobble lock parking, concrete footpaths, Tarmac roadways. Houses are tall terraced three stories, they are built right up to the footpath.
An earlier phase of one of the developments is fully occupied.
Cars fill every nook and cranny. Each corner and kerb has a car perched on top.
Many of the homes appear to be buy to let.
Planning departments are granting permission for 1.5 parking spaces in 4 bedroom houses.
Two houses in one of those appeared on Daft the other day as buy to let.
If I want to enjoy battles over parking, bins, bicycle parking, I can enjoy it in my current apartment.
Buy shares in NCPS as they are getting more contracts from management companies while we build higher density homes.
@Mossy Phelan: It goes to show that not all planning departments sing off the same hymn-sheet where developers are concerned. Leaving a mess in one county before moving off to another is fair game it seems.
The plan looks dense enough to me. My village was ruined by high density badly planned estates which weren’t even finished. The government could have had a sustainable industry, steady stream of housing and construction jobs if planning was managed nationally instead of control resting at the councils. It’s a disgrace how the country’s been blighted by greedy, bad planning and now they speak of a housing shortage…only in Ireland…
Ireland’s scenery has been destroyed by ugly bungalows and McMansions built all over the place.
So should we all live in urbanised apartment blocks Eamon??? If people are looking to build on their own land in an area they are from I firmly believe they should be allowed do so once they meet planning regulations
Ireland’s scenery has been destroued by all these humans who annoyingly insist on having somewhere to live.
@Neal not Neil:
Turn the spell check back on
Gary, fine if you want to build a house in the middle of a remote field but then don’t come along later and moan about poor transportation, no broadband, and how you want the postman to talk to you when you’re old.
@Barry Davidson:
Nobody in the country moans about poor transportation, they accept there is none and make their own arrangements. They are fully entitled to moan about increases in Motor Tax & Fuel Prices, just as anybody living in an Urban area is entitled to do so about Bus Fares and Train Ticket prices.
Irish buliders at their best…
The model in holland and germany works but is unpalatable in ireland. You must live in a city town or village umless you are actively farming the land. Their approach has to do with cost efficiency, infrastructure costs, and provision of services-hosptials, doctor clinics, council services, schools/town busses/broadband/electricity/gas/water/sewage/rubbish collection & re-cycling. The local council in your town provides you with ur driving license and paspport as well as providing a host of other services. The modest local council tax ensures provision of cycling lanes, footpaths, roads. Each town has an area sectioned off for a park for walking and extensive sport facilities. If you look at the layout of Alphen aan den Rijn in holland its a text book example of how to layout a town. I know this all sounds unpalatable in ireland but it works. I very much enjoy the countryside and head out every weekend but ive chosen to live in a town for convenience and im too busy during the week to enjoy the great outdoors. I know this model doesn’t suit everyone and we have an agricultural background in this country as opposed to industrial nations like the example discused. Just thought I’d share my own experiences.
@John Bennett: The existence of McMansions in “the country” is utterly irrelevant to this story.
@gregory: Gergory, the trend toward living in urban areas is well established in Ireland.
The real problem is that most of the built environment in Ireland is just tat, only recently has their been a focus on quality construction and good quality windows and doors.
How can you blame those who choose to build one off housing, when the alternative was to pay more for rubbish quality.
Dr Frankingombeen..the celtic tiger….it’s alive, it’s alive I tell you..we have brought it back to life….
Very congested area as it is…
have your say