The Court of Criminal Appeal has reduced jail sentences imposed on five Limerick men convicted for offences arising from what a Garda detective described as a "pitched battle" in a car park outside a fast-food restaurant.
The fight took place outside Supermacs on the Ennis Road in the city at the height of a gangland feud in the city in 2003.
Patrick McCarthy (34), College Avenue, Moyross; Kieran Ryan (22), Pineview Gardens, Moyross; Edward McCarthy (26), O'Callaghan Avenue, Kileely, and David Sheehan (22), Cliona Park, Moyross, were all jailed for six years each.
They were convicted by a jury of violent disorder outside Supermacs restaurant on the Ennis Road, Limerick, on May 27th 2003. They had denied the charge. A fifth man, David McCarthy (27), O'Callaghan Avenue, Kileely, was jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to the same charge.
Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding at the three-judge appeal court yesterday, said the sentences imposed were "disproportionately high" compared to three-year sentences imposed on the two co-accused who pleaded guilty.
The judge said that the court would reduce the sentences on all five men to 4½ years to date from yesterday and to take into account time already served.
The court dismissed an appeal by the five men against their convictions. The five men were convicted in June 2004 at Limerick Circuit Court after a trial which lasted 13 days .
The court heard that the five men had been eating in Supermacs when they heard that two members of a rival gang had arrived in a van outside.
The two men who were in the van had a walking stick and snooker cue.
The five men inside the restaurant grabbed makeshift weapons including a baby's chair and a plastic sign from the restaurant and confronted the other two men before gardaí broke up the fracas.