Brothers who went on Christmas crime spree get their sentences reduced
The judge cut their ten-year sentences to eight years each
TWO brothers who went on a Christmas Day ‘crime spree’ involving the arson of a car and a serious assault that left a man in his 60s with a traumatic brain injury have had two years knocked off their prison sentences upon appeal.
Ms Justice Tara Burns said that the sentencing judge had been wrong to impose consecutive sentences on Colin Murphy (36) and Glen Murphy (33) due to how closely connected some of the offending was, and she reduced their ten-year sentences to eight years each.
The brothers, from Kyleshall, Raheendoran, Co Carlow, stole a tractor on 25 December 2022 and crashed it into an Eir telecommunications pole before hijacking a car being driven by a woman. The pair then smashed a vodka bottle over an innocent man’s head and viciously attacked another man, leaving him in a coma, before burning out a vehicle in the middle of the road.
The sentencing court heard that they caused €1,722 damage to the telecommunications pole and blocked the road after crashing the stolen tractor for a final time. They attempted to get into the woman’s car and after she called family members who arrived at the scene, the brothers got out of the woman’s vehicle and attacked her relative, smashing the vodka bottle over his head.
They then smashed up the woman’s car as locals called gardaí. Witnesses heard a commotion with dogs barking, shouting and screaming and what sounded like shots being fired and the sky lighting up with flames. Locals walked in the direction and saw a vehicle had been set on fire.
The unconscious body of a neighbour was lying on the road and the person, who initially could not be identified due to his significant injuries, was covered in blood and his top had been removed. He was taken to ICU with ‘traumatic brain injuries’, which resulted in him being put in an induced coma.
At their sentencing hearing at Kilkenny Circuit Court in March of last year, Judge Cormac Quinn described the offences as “a substantial crime spree” and jailed both brothers for ten years each.
Judge Quinn convicted Glen Murphy of criminal damage to a MPV and sentenced him to two years, with a further two years for criminal damage to the Eir poles.
He also imposed a three-year sentence for the assault causing harm to the man he struck with a bottle and a five-year sentence for the assault on the man who was left unconscious on the road. All sentences were to run consecutively, with the final two years suspended.
In relation to Colin Murphy, the judge convicted him of arson and sentenced him to seven years, with a further five years for assault causing harm.
Launching an appeal in June against their ten-year sentences, counsel for Glen Murphy, David Bulbulia SC, said that while the assault on the man in his 60s was very serious and the sort of case where the maximum headline sentence of five years was appropriate, no mitigation had been applied by the sentencing court.
Counsel for Colin Murphy, Kathleen Leader SC, said that the sentences imposed on her client should have been concurrent as they were all part of the same event. She said there had been an error in principle where the arson was placed, as the headline sentence of 14 years put it in the very highest band of offending.
In delivering judgment at the Court of Appeal, Ms Justice Burns said that the section 3 assault was of an extremely serious nature and readily fell within the category of “the worst imaginable variation of the offence”. She cited the viciousness of the assault which left the victim unconscious and unrecognisable due to the injuries sustained to his face, including a significant traumatic brain injury which has resulted in lasting neurological damage.
“We are of the opinion that the trial judge did not err in finding that this offence was of such an exceptional character that it required the imposition of the maximum sentence available,” she said.
She noted that the sentencing judge had set a headline sentence of 14 years for the arson, which had involved the victim being seriously assaulted and left unconscious on the ground before his car was set alight, which could have had very serious consequences for him had he not been rescued.
“We are of the opinion that the sentencing judge did not err in nominating a headline sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment, having regard to the extreme seriousness of this offending behaviour,” said Ms Justice Burns.
Concerning the imposition of consecutive sentences, Ms Justice Burns said that where multiple offending occurs within the same criminal transaction, the appropriateness of imposing consecutive sentences narrows such that a proportionate sentence cannot be reached by the imposition of consecutive sentences. Ruling that the court was of the view that the imposition of consecutive sentences was not an appropriate approach by the sentencing judge in light of how closely connected some of the offending was, Ms Justice Burns said the court would quash the original sentences and resentence the appellants.
In the case of Colm Murphy, Ms Justice Burns said that a headline sentence of 14 years correctly reflected the very serious nature of the offending, which was reduced to nine-and-a-half years, with the final 18 months suspended for 18 months.
For the assault offence, Ms Justice Burns said that the maximum sentence of five years should be imposed, to run concurrently to the sentence imposed for arson.
In the case of Glen Murphy, Ms Justice Burns said that the total sentence imposed was nine-and-a-half years, with the final 18 months suspended for 18 months.
