OAP who put bomb on bus loses appeal
A PENSIONER who put a bomb on a bus during Queen Elizabeth’s visit here has lost an appeal against the severity of his eightand-a-half year sentence.
The Court of Appeal said the only way it would change the 70year-old’s ‘very lenient’ sentence would be to increase it. But, the judges decided not to do so.
Dónal Billings with an address at St Bridget’s Court, Drumlish, Co. Longford, had already lost an appeal against conviction for the offence, and for making hoax bomb threats.
That appeal had focused on his Irish language rights.
He was found guilty by the nonjury Special Criminal Court in 2016 of possessing an explosive substance at Longford railway station car park on May 16, 2011.
He was also convicted of making false reports that bombs had been placed at Busáras, at Sinn Féin’s headquarters in Dublin, and in the toilets at Cork airport, and that two mortars were set for Dublin Castle.
Sentencing him at the time, Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, said Billings was ‘perfectly entitled to hold a low opinion’ of Queen Elizabeth and her visit to Ireland, but was ‘not entitled to express such an opinion by engaging in criminality’. His trial was heard in both Irish and English, as was his appeal yesterday. Court President Justice George Birmingham opened proceedings by warning that the court’s powers included increasing as well as reducing sentence.
Billings decided to go ahead with his appeal.
His barrister, Gerard Humphreys SC, said that Billings was 70 years old and had health difficulties.
He pointed out that his trial had been listed to last for six weeks but had finished in 13 weekdays, due to his client’s co-operation.
Justice Birmingham, sitting with Justice Marie Baker and Justice Patrick McCarthy, said: ‘For us, it’s clear, there’s no merit in the appeal against severity. This was a lenient, indeed a very lenient sentence.’
Billings was present remotely, attending from Portlaoise Prison, to hear his appeal dismissed.
‘There’s no merit in the appeal’