Tullow pair given suspended sentences after High Court quashes original verdict
The Four Courts, Dublin
A CO CARLOW assault case, appealed to the High Court on the grounds of lenience, has had its original verdict quashed and the defendants given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
Cian Byrne (21) of Ballyhackett, Tullow and 22-year-old Shane Corcoran, The Links, Rathoe Road, Tullow had pleaded guilty to assault in a car park at New Road, Tullow in September 2021 at Carlow Circuit Court last year.
The circuit court had heard that the injured party had been a friend of the accused men and that the assault had caused him dental injuries, costing approximately €15,000 to repair.
In summing up the case at the circuit court in December 2023, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said that the victim’s car had been burgled and that a fracas broke out between a group of friends, resulting in the injured party getting assaulted by Mr Byrne and Mr Corcoran.
The judge noted that the gardaí called it “a prank gone wrong” and that their actions “had a significant effect on a large group of people” and that their “group of friends was fractured” as a result. He also noted that the injured party could no longer socialise in his own hometown and that he had been “an 18-year-old outnumbered by farm hands”.
Judge O’Kelly gave Mr Byrne and Mr Corcoran the benefit of the with no convictions recorded. They were also ordered to pay €20,000 in compensation.
State solicitor Brendan O’Flaherty later appealed that sentence to the High Court on the grounds of leniency.
The matter came before the three judges at the High Court on 14 October. Justice Isobel Kennedy, Justice Pat McCarthy and Justice Tara Burns noted that while the charge against Mr Byrne and Mr Corcoran was proved, they ruled to quash the sentence of the circuit court. In a verbal ruling, Justice McCarthy sentenced Mr Byrne and Mr Corcoran to 18 month in prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
