Appeal court refuses to jail woman over knife assault

The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday agreed with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that the imposition of a suspended sentence on a Dublin woman who assaulted a schoolgirl with a knife while stealing her handbag was "unduly lenient".

However, sending Lisa Comerford to prison at this stage, in circumstances where she had come off heroin since the offence and was looking after her four children, including a 10-week-old baby, would gain nothing for the public good, Ms Justice McGuinness said.

There was a real danger that, if jailed, Comerford would fall back into her drug addiction or return in other ways to offending behaviour. It was well known that drugs could be available in prison, the judge added.

Comerford (29), of Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, received a two-year sentence, suspended for four years, after pleading guilty to two counts of robbery, including robbery of the 17-year-old schoolgirl at a bus stop in Tallaght on August 27th, 2000. During the incident, Comerford assaulted the girl with a knife, and the girl has a scar on her arm as a result.

Comerford's co-accused, her former partner and father of three of her four children, Colm Fogarty (29), of Killinarden Avenue, was jailed for four years for the robbery of the girl and other robberies on the same day.

The DPP appealed Comerford's suspended sentence to the appeal court as unduly lenient.

Giving the court's decision, Ms Justice McGuinness, said the appeal court was in no doubt the suspended sentence imposed on Comerford was unduly lenient.

However, it could still refuse the application to review the sentence.