A JUDGE yesterday complained that a sentencing limitation rule was making a joke of the courts when she was, faced with a man still serving a 22 month sentence which he started in 1992.
The man had escaped from jail and committed further offences while at large. He was now serving the time he had been unlawfully at large.
"How can I impose a sentence when the maximum I can give is two years starting from the beginning of that sentence? Any sentence I give now will be legally over by November 1994," said Judge Gillian Hussey.
According to District Court rules the judge could not impose a sentence lasting longer than two years from the date of the original District Court sentence.
Judge Hussey was speaking in the case of Eamonn O'Neil (35) of Loch Conn Road, Ballyfermot, who pleaded guilty to breaking into a house in Ballyfermot on April 24th, stealing a microwave oven and three kettles from a delivery truck on Ballyfermot Road on April 25th, and stealing a can of beer from Crazy Prices in Ballyfermot on April 29th.
"It's a waste of ink trying to give him a meaningful sentence," she said in Kilmainham District Court when she heard that O'Neill was serving a 22 month sentence which started in 1992.
"I'll just have to take these into consideration with the sentence he's serving," she said.
"Some people have to go to the theatre for comedy. It's a laugh a minute in here," said Judge Hussey.