The Court of Criminal Appeal has reduced to seven years the 10-year jail sentence imposed on Limerick man Wayne Dundon for threatening to kill a young barman. Dundon had issued the threat after barman Ryan Lee refused to allow his 14-year-old sister into a pub in Limerick city.
Dundon (29), Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, was convicted in May 2005 at Limerick Circuit Court of threatening to kill Mr Lee at Brannigans Pub, Mulgrave Street, Limerick, on December 19th, 2004. A 10-year prison sentence was imposed by Judge Carroll Moran.
About 30 minutes after the incident with Dundon, Mr Lee was shot and injured. No charges were brought in relation to the shooting.
Dundon appealed against both conviction and sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal which, in a reserved judgment yesterday, dismissed the appeal against conviction but reduced the sentence by three years.
The three-judge court, with Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, rejected all the grounds of appeal against conviction and also refused Dundon's application to have two additional grounds of appeal considered.
However, Ms Justice Macken said the CCA was satisfied the 10-year sentence imposed on Dundon was "unduly severe" and would replace it with a seven-year sentence.
During the appeal hearing last October, James Lewis QC, for Dundon, had argued the 10-year sentence was "manifestly excessive".
Counsel said Dundon had at that stage spent almost four years in custody and intended, on his release, to return to the UK with his family, where he had lived until he was 19 years old.
Counsel also argued the judge's charge to the trial jury was not satisfactory in that the jury should not have been told Mr Lee was shot shortly after the incident with Dundon.
Giving judgment, Ms Justice Macken said the court was satisfied no error had occurred in relation to Dundon's conviction. However, in relation to the sentence, the court found Judge Moran had erred in law by taking into account Mr Lee's subsequent shooting.
Ms Justice Macken said the CCA believed the threat to kill was "a very serious crime indeed", falling at "the upper end" of the scale for that crime and meriting a sentence in the region of eight years.
However, the "very minor" assistance to the trial provided through certain admissions made by Dundon, plus his personal circumstances, provided for a small reduction of that eight-year term.