A MAN WHO twice tried to have his estranged wife killed has asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to allow him to appeal his seven-year sentence to the Supreme Court on grounds it raises an important point of law.
Patrick Rafferty (40), a haulier, Ballina, Co Tipperary, who offered an undercover garda €15,000 to kill his wife by faking a road accident, had appealed the severity of the sentence imposed on him by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court in January 2007.
The Court of Criminal Appeal rejected that appeal in December 2007 and Rafferty is now seeking leave to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Rafferty had pleaded guilty to soliciting Det Garda Patrick Crowley to murder his wife, Mary Rafferty, on February 7th, 2005, at an area between the Five Alleys public house, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Daly’s Cross, Castleconnell, Co Limerick.
Yesterday the Court of Criminal Appeal, with Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Eamon de Valera, reserved judgment.
Michael O’Higgins SC, for Rafferty, said the point of law on which his client wanted to make his appeal related to the element of deterrence built into his client’s sentence. Because what Rafferty did was “a once-off”, the sentencing judge was not entitled to increase the sentence in order to deter others from doing the same thing, Mr O’Higgins argued.
Rosario Boyle SC, for the DPP, opposed the application and argued that no important point of law has been raised.
Rafferty’s trial heard that the father of three offered the detective €15,000 and indicated he could probably come up with another €5,000. Rafferty suggested to the undercover garda that he stage a road traffic incident in which he would “run her car off the road”.
Rafferty told the garda, if this was not successful, he was to “do her neck in” at which point he made a choking gesture. This was not the first time Rafferty had attempted to solicit somebody to kill his wife, the trial was told. Five months earlier, he paid €8,000 to a well-known criminal who ripped him off.
The court heard this earlier attempt was admitted by Rafferty during a series of interviews which followed his arrest in February, 2005. Before Rafferty sought to hire somebody to kill his wife, she had taken money out of a joint bank account and had brought certain matters to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners which resulted in a judgment of €20,000 being registered against him, the court also heard.