The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday increased from one to three years the prison sentence imposed on a former member of the Irish Navy, Seán Lundon, for an assault on a Dublin man.
The assault occurred two months after the manslaughter of a fellow crewman on board the LE Eithne, for which offence Lundon was jailed for five years.
Yesterday's decision means Lundon will serve a total of eight years for the two offences.
The DPP had appealed against what he described as the undue leniency of the sentence imposed on Lundon (22), an apprentice mechanic, of James Connolly Park, Tipperary town, for the second assault.
On November 25th last, Clonmel Circuit Court imposed a three-year sentence on Lundon for causing serious harm to a Dublin man, Mr Mark Cautley, at Gortavilla, Tipperary town, on June 23rd, 2001. The last two years of the sentence were suspended on Lundon's bond to be of good behaviour. The Circuit Court also ordered that the first year of the sentence was to be served consecutively to the five-year sentence earlier imposed for manslaughter.
Upholding the DPP's appeal against the leniency of the sentence for the assault, the CCA yesterday ruled that, in addition to the five-year sentence for manslaughter, Lundon should serve three years for the assault in Tipperary, without any part of that latter sentence being suspended.
Lundon had been jailed for five years by the Central Criminal Court in June 2003 for the manslaughter of Able Seaman Brian Gorey (21), of Devon Close, Castletroy View, Limerick, at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, on April 22nd, 2001. Both were members of the crew of the LE Eithne.
Giving judgment in the CCA yesterday, Mr Justice McCracken said Lundon had pleaded guilty to the assault in Tipperary.
It had not been disputed that he took part in a fist fight dispute in the early hours. Lundon had returned home, changed his clothes, armed himself with a knife and went back into the town and savagely attacked the victim. The victim was stabbed very forcibly right down the length of his face. This was, to the mind of the CCA and the trial judge, a very deliberate and serious assault.
Mr Justice McCracken, sitting with Ms Justice Laffoy and Mr Justice Herbert, said the most serious element was that of premeditation.
While it had been suggested Lundon had an inability to cope with a large amount of alcohol, he was not drunk enough so that he could not make his way home and back into town again.