Sentence increased for man who stabbed journalist in neck
A man who left a young journalist fighting for her life after he stabbed her through the neck during an attempted robbery has had his prison sentence increased from seven to ten years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Today the three judge CCA described the attack carried out in Dublin's Coombe area by Leszek Jarosz (aged 22), from Poland, on Mairéad O'Dwyer as "extraordinarily savage".
Last April Jarosz, the Mills, Weavers Square, the Coombe, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to causing serious harm to Ms O'Dwyer and to attempting to rob her on May 19, 2007.
He also admitted to robbing José Gonzalez and Luka Martinacon on the same night. He was jailed for a total of seven years by Judge Patrick McCartan.
The DPP appealed that sentence on the grounds that it was unduly lenient.
Mr Fergal Foley BL for the DPP told the court that Judge McCarten had erred when formulating sentence because he had set 10 years as the starting point before taking mitigating factors into account.
Counsel said that 10 years for an offence of this nature, where life imprisonment is the maximum sentence, was "too low given the sheer level of violence involved".
Opposing the appeal Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC for Jarosz said that it was hard to find anything wrong with the sentence imposed on his client, and that it should be left undisturbed.
However CCA, consisting of Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding sitting with Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Ms Justice Mary Irvine agree with the DPP that the seven-year sentence was unduly lenient, and in its place imposed one of 10 years.
