A man who shot and seriously injured a county sheriff and two bailiffs when they went to evict him and his terminally ill mother from a "hovel" in Co Cavan was jailed for five years by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.
The court upheld an appeal by the DPP against the suspension of a four-year sentence imposed on the man. The case related to a 44hour siege at an isolated house at Ballyleenan, Co Cavan, on January 15th, 1997, where Jan Gerrit Jochem Isenborger (44) was living with his mother.
Isenborger was given a four-year suspended sentence when he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to shooting Cavan County Registrar, Mr Thomas Owens, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. He had also pleaded guilty to similar charges relating to the shooting of the two bailiffs and was given concurrent sentences.
In a reserved judgment on the DPP's appeal against leniency of the sentence yesterday, the court found the sentence unduly lenient and decided there must be a custodial sentence. It imposed a fiveyear sentence to date from the date of trial, May 26th, 1998.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty, who sat with Mr Justice Kinlen and Mr Justice O'Sullivan, said the injuries were extremely serious, especially so in the case of Mr Owens. "It was only by a merciful dispensation of Providence that no one was killed," he said, adding that Isenborger was distraught and out of control at the time.
One would have to be hardhearted not to have sympathy for him alone with his dying mother in an isolated dwelling. Nonetheless, no blame could be attached to Mr Owens and those who attended at the house, the judge said. Mr Owens had put Isenborger on notice many months before that he was required to take possession of the dwelling. Isenborger had promised to move out on several occasions but then took a more obdurate attitude.
While the court accepted that the attacks were not premeditated, it was concerned that there should have been so many firearms and such a quantity of ammunition at Isenborger's disposal; that the attacks went on for some considerable length; and that it required the negotiating skills of gardai to permit the arrival of ambulances to the injured.
After that, the "siege" of the house had gone on for a total of 44 hours. "The shooting was cowardly, delivered without warning, and had catastrophic consequences, especially for Mr Owens," Mr Justice O'Flaherty said. The shooting also amounted to an attack on the administration of justice.
The judge said the courts depended for their effectiveness on their ability to have their orders enforced. If court orders were flouted, or worse, as here, met with violent resistance, then the rule of law died too. The court was of opinion that the appropriate level of sentence would have been in the range of 7-10 years.
The Circuit Court judge would have been entitled to give a discount for the distraught state of the accused; his subsequent remorse; his pleas of guilty and the fact that for him, as a foreigner, prison would prove a greater hardship.