CONOR Killeen has won a reprieve from serving the remaining 10 1/2 months of his 12 month sentence for having helped bud the Irish Press of more £64,000.
Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday upheld the one year imposed on the former partner of solicitor and Irish director, Elio Malocco, by Circuit Court Judge Patrick Smith, but suspended the remaining 10 months he was to serve.
Killeen (39), of Tudor Lane, Foxrock, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to five charges of having been an accessory after the fact of forgery and appealed against the severity of his sentence. He was sentenced last July 2nd but freed on bail on July 31st pending the hearing of his appeal.
Yesterday Mr Justice O'Flaherty, sitting in the Court of Criminal Appeal with Mr Justice Moriarty and Ms Justice Laffoy, heard submissions by Mr Joseph Mathews SC, for the State, and Mr Maurice Gaffney SC, for Killeen.
The court held that trial Judge Smith had not erred in principle and upheld the one year sentence. But Mr Justice O'Flaherty said the court considered the sentence, half of the maximum applicable, bordered on hardship.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty said the court was taking into consideration the fact that Killeen had pleaded guilty, had not benefited from Malocco's crimes and had paid all he could raise, £40,000 of his own money, in restitution.
The Court of Criminal Appeal recently upheld Malocco's conviction and five year sentence imposed in May 1995 after a jury had found him guilty of six charges of fraud, forgery and deceit.
The offences with which Killeen had been charged related to his admitted knowledge of the use by Malocco of forged accounts relating to libel action pay outs that had been misappropriated.