DPP appeal against leniency of Continuity IRA members' sentence rejected
A court today turned down an appeal by the DPP against the leniency of prison sentences given to two Dublin men who were jailed for an intended Continuity IRA pipe bomb attack on the city's northside.
Christopher Mc Carthy (aged 29) of The Vale, Woodfarm Acres, Palmerstown and Daniel Mc Faul (aged 22), of Croftwood Crescent, Ballyfermot were each given six years prison sentences with the final three years suspended by the Special Criminal Court last March.
They had pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device containing nitro cellulose and a timer power unit at Belcamp Crescent, Dublin on January 20 last year.
The Special Criminal Court was told that gardai mounted a surveillance operation after receiving confidential information that the Continuity IRA intended to carry out an operation at Belcamp Crescent.
They saw McCarthy drive a motorbike to Belcamp Crescent and Mc Faul, who was the passenger, walk towards a van parked in the driveway of a house. Mc Faul was seen removing a plastic lunchbox from a satchel and placing it under the van.
Both men were arrested and after local people were evacuated from the area, an Army bomb disposal team carried out two controlled explosions on the device, which consisted of a pipe bomb with electrical wires and containing nitro cellulose.
Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, for the State, submitted that the sentences imposed on the two men were unduly lenient and that the trial court failed to give due regard of the real and potential danger of the explosive device and its close proximity to residential homes.
The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal by the DPP against the leniency of the sentences.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding at the three-judge court, said that the court was satisfied that the device would have caused serious injury and death if it had exploded.
He said that while the offence was "extremely serious", the court was satisfied that there had not been an error in principle in the sentences passed by the Special Criminal Court, and the sentences would stand.
