DPP appeal fails over bomb-plot sentences

The Director of Public Prosecutions has failed in his effort to secure an increase in the six-year sentences given to two Dublin…

The Director of Public Prosecutions has failed in his effort to secure an increase in the six-year sentences given to two Dublin men who were jailed in connection with an intended Continuity IRA pipe bomb attack on the city's northside.

Rejecting the DPP's appeal, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding at the three-judge court, said the court was satisfied that the device would have caused serious injury and death if it had exploded.

However, 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, the judge said.

The appeal court affirmed the sentences imposed.

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Christopher McCarthy (29), The Vale, Woodfarm Acres, Palmerstown and Daniel McFaul (22), of Croftwood Crescent, Ballyfermot, were each given six-year prison sentences, with the final three years suspended, by the non-jury Special Criminal Court last March.

They had pleaded guilty to having an improvised explosive device containing nitro-cellulose and a timer power unit at Belcamp Crescent, Dublin, on January 20th last year.

The Special Criminal Court was told that gardaí mounted a surveillance operation after receiving confidential information that the Continuity IRA intended to carry out an operation at Belcamp Crescent.

At the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, Mary Ellen Ring SC, for the DPP, argued that the sentences imposed on the two men were unduly lenient.

She claimed that the trial court had failed to give due regard of the real and potential danger of the explosive device and its close proximity to homes.