Court told jail term for Laois man who repeatedly stabbed partner too lenient

The 33-month jail sentence handed down to a man who repeatedly stabbed his partner with a knife, leaving her hospitalised for three weeks, was too lenient and should be set aside, lawyers for the State have told the Court of Appeal.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Thomas O'Malley SC today said that although the headline sentence of five years set by the sentencing judge was justified and the accused was entitled to mitigation, the ultimate sentence handed down was unduly lenient considering the gravity of the offence.  

Keith Malone (40), Barnashrone, Mountmellick, was charged with assault causing harm and production of an article, at Athy, Co Kildare, on 6 January 2019.  On that date, he stabbed his partner four times with a knife, causing injuries including a damaged liver, a collapsed lung, a broken rib, and a gash to her elbow.  

He was sentenced at Naas Circuit Court on 19 January 2022 to three years' imprisonment with the last three months suspended for a period of 12 months.  

Mr O'Malley said the offence was at the top end of the scale of assault causing harm, as the victim had been stabbed four times with a knife and sustained internal injuries, which necessitated her staying in hospital for three weeks.  

Mr Justice John Edwards pointed out that the Oireachtas had set the maximum limit of five years for the offence of assault causing harm.  

"You can't suggest giving him less mitigation than he is entitled to just because the sentence is set too low," said Mr Justice Edwards.  

"He is entitled to a certain percentage of mitigation, but 25% would be more appropriate rather than 40%," replied Mr O'Malley.  

"If the headline sentence was 60 months, was a reduction of one third entitled? I would say no. The going rate for a plea is 10-30%. In this case, there was not any justification for setting the reduction at the highest rate," said Mr O'Malley.  

Mr Justice Edwards asked him if he accepted that it should not have been set at the lowest level but somewhere in between.  

"Yes, perhaps 10-30%, somewhere in the region of 20%," replied Mr O'Malley. "No credit was due for any previous good record; he didn’t have the record to justify further reduction. An excessive amount of mitigation was given.”  

Mr O'Malley also raised an issue with the three months suspended in the sentencing. He said that a suspended sentence is given at the discretion of the trial judge to facilitate rehabilitation. He said that one factor in not imposing a suspended portion is if a significant amount of mitigation has already been granted.  

Defence counsel, Kathleen Leader SC, said her client had entered an early guilty plea, which lessened the administrative burden of the case.  

"There was never a trial date set, so there was never the question of people preparing themselves for trial," she said.  

Ms Leader said that the trial judge had placed the offence at the higher end of the scale and set a headline sentence of five years, but the judge then took into consideration her client's early guilty plea.  

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said that the sentencing judge seemed to take into account all factors including the early plea when she first reduced the headline sentence of five years by 20 months, but she then returned to the matter of the early plea again, which she had already taken into consideration.  

Ms Leader said that the judge took off 20 months to begin with, but she then reduced it by another four months due to other mitigating factors.  

She said that Malone's behaviour in the aftermath of the offence should be taken into account.  

“Is the fact that he didn’t make it worse really mitigation?” asked Mr Justice Edwards.

Ms Leader said it was to Malone's credit that after the attack he brought the victim to a neighbour's house and called an ambulance, and he said that he had stabbed her.  

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She said he had since engaged with the probation service and the domestic abuse MEND programme. She said the victim was not put through a trial, and Malone had done a significant amount of work in custody, having undertaken two levels of a domestic violence course and anger management.

"There was evidence of the significant remorse of someone coming to their senses after doing something dreadful," Ms Leader said.  

Judgement was reserved in the case to a later date.