The Court of Criminal Appeal has more than doubled the prison sentences imposed on three Limerick men for their part in a shooting at a housing estate in the city.
The three-judge court yesterday upheld arguments by the Director of Public Prosecutions that the three-year terms initially imposed on the men were unduly lenient and it increased the sentences to seven years in the case of two of them.
The third man will serve a six-year term because of his younger age.
Paul Dillon (22), Shanabooly Road, Ballynanty, Colin Hughes (21), River Road, Rhebogue, and Kieran Kelly (19), College Avenue, Moyross, had all pleaded guilty last June to two charges arising out of an incident in which another man was shot in the leg with a handgun. They admitted causing harm to Aidan Cahill, then aged 18, in Moyross, on March 5th, 2006, and pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun with intent to endanger life.
Mr Justice Justice Joseph Finnegan, presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Michael Hanna and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, found the three-year sentences were unduly lenient. The court imposed new terms of seven years but said that, in light of Kelly's young age at the time, it would suspend the last 12 months of his sentence.
Earlier, Michael Collins, for the DPP, said the trial judge had erred by failing to have regard to the serious nature of the offence.
Lawyers for the three argued that the original sentences were appropriate and that the trial judge had taken all the relevant factors into account in determining sentence.
Mr Justice Finnegan said the appeals court disagreed with the trial judge's assessment that the incident was "fairly serious". It was "extremely serious", the court believed.
The trial court was told that the shooting was feud-related and was part of an ongoing dispute between two families in Moyross, but those claims were denied by the defence.