COUSIN ON BAIL IN FATAL RAID GIVEN ‘UNDULY LENIENT’ PRISON SENTENCE
THE DPP is seeking tougher jail terms for two men involved in a ‘fatal burglary’ at a 62-year-old man’s home – and State lawyers pointed out that one of the raiders was free at the time because he had been given bail twice.
Cousins Michael and David Casey admitted to a series of burglaries, including at the Limerick home of John O’Donoghue and his sister in 2015.
Following this, a judge sent them to jail for just three-anda-half years. But yesterday lawyers for the DPP told the appeal court that Judge Tom O’Donnell should have taken David Casey’s two bail releases into consideration. The victim’s family also criticised the sentences as ‘lenient given the circumstances’.
Mr O’Donoghue collapsed and died of a heart attack after he found the two ransacking his home. The pair, who had 60 previous convictions between them, fled but were caught by gardaí a short distance away.
In the appeal court yesterday counsel for the DPP, Thomas O’Malley BL, set out the case against Michael Casey, 34, of Clonlong Halting Site, Southill, Limerick, and David Casey, 22, of Carragh Park, Coolock, Dublin 17. They had both pleaded guilty to a series of burglaries, including one at Mr O’Donoghue’s home at Toomaline, Doon, Co. Limerick, on August 27, 2015.
Judge O’Donnell had sentenced both, at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, to four-and-ahalf years’ imprisonment with the final year suspended, on December 15, 2016.
Mr O’Malley said the sentence was ‘unduly lenient’, considering the harm caused, and pointed out that there was a second victim, Mr O’Donoghue’s surviving sister, who had to watch her brother ‘drop dead in front of the family home’.
He said: ‘Of course they didn’t for a moment intend to harm anybody – they had to take their victim as they found him.’ However, he said there was an ‘inherent risk’ in burglary and that there had to be a punishment that reflected that harm.
He said David Casey was on bail at the time of the burglaries and that the sentencing judge did not allude to that in his sentencing remarks. Mr O’Malley said the sentencing judge failed to specify the ‘headline sentence’, before making appropriate adjustments for any personal circumstances of the accused.
Headline sentences send out a message to censure the criminal conduct involved. Repeated residential burglary was ‘conduct that is the cause of tremendous public concern at the present time’, he said.
He said the offences were not committed impulsively or opportunistically, but that the Caseys targeted four different dwellings as part of a burglary ‘spree’ on the same day. He added that the ‘trashing’ of a home added to the trauma of the homeowners. On an earlier occasion, prosecuting counsel, John G. O’Sullivan BL referred to the case as a ‘fatal burglary’.
Counsel for David Casey, Michael Bowman SC, said what happened after the incident couldn’t aggravate the offence and that there was no evidence the cousins deliberately walked past Mr O’Donoghue as he was having a ‘fit or a heart attack’.
Appeal court Judge George Birmingham, who sat with Judge Alan Mahon and Judge John Edwards, said he hopes to have a decision, if not a judgment, in the case on Monday.
‘Sister watched him drop dead’