THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has reserved its decision on an attempt by Linda Mulhall, one of two sisters jailed for killing their mother’s former boyfriend, to have the Supreme Court decide whether her 15-year sentence is unduly severe.
Lawyers for Mulhall have asked the appeal court to refer issues relating to how that sentence was determined to the Supreme Court.
Mulhall (34) was found guilty in October 2006 of the manslaughter of Farah Swaleh Noor (39), a native of Somalia, on March 20th, 2005, and a 15-year sentence was imposed. The appeal court later ruled that the trial judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney, had imposed the appropriate sentence given the nature of the offence.
Brendan Grehan SC, for Mulhall, yesterday said that the appeal court decision upholding the sentence involved points of exceptional public importance which should be determined by the Supreme Court.
These included whether it was permissible for a court, in imposing a sentence for manslaughter following a successful defence of provocation, to discount the offender’s background and personal circumstances on the basis of holding that the jury had already taken these into account when returning its verdict.
The Supreme Court should also decide whether the appeal court was bound to consider the sentence by reference to the parameters adopted by the trial judge or in light of new evidence in a probation report which was not available to the trial judge when setting those parameters.