Domestic Violence Act 2018 - Relationship between defendant and victim aggravating factor
- miriamdelahunt
- Jul 8, 2022
- 3 min read
The Irish Times - Declan Brennan
6th July 2022
Man beat his partner unconscious because she wanted to go to bed and he wanted to stay up partying
Judge Martin Nolan set a headline sentence of four years. He said that taking into consideration the mitigating factors, including the guilty pleas and Prenderville’s steps towards reform, the appropriate sentence was a prison term of 33 months.
He noted that Prenderville had spent about 20 months in custody on this offence and that allowing for the usual good behaviour discount this amounted to 27 months. The court heard that Prenderville had his bail revoked and was remanded into custody after persistent breaches of curfew.
Judge Nolan said he was taking this time served into account and imposed a six-month sentence to date from Wednesday for the assault offence. He said the defendant did have a long history of offending, some of which are relevant, and has a propensity for violence but noted that he is sincerely sorry and has taken steps to reform himself.
He said in ordinary terms the assault was in the mid-range but the aggravating factor was that it was a domestic situation. The prosecution counsel had previously informed the court the fact that there was a relationship between defendant and victim was an aggravating factor, pursuant to the Domestic Violence Act 2018
Domestic Violence Act 2018
Relationship between defendant and victim as aggravating factor in sentencing for certain offences
40. (1) Where a court is determining the sentence to be imposed on a person for a relevant offence, the fact that the offence was committed by the person against a relevant person shall be treated, for the purpose of determining the sentence, as an aggravating factor.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), where subsection (1) applies the court shall impose a sentence which is greater than that which would have been imposed if the person against whom the offence was committed was not a relevant person.
(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply where the court considers that there are exceptional circumstances justifying it not applying that subsection.
(4) The sentence imposed as a result of the application of subsection (2) shall not be greater than the maximum sentence permissible for the relevant offence concerned.
(5) In this section—
“Act of 1990” means the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990
“relevant offence” means—
(a) an offence under sections 2 to 15 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997
(aa) an offence under section 2 or 3 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020,
(b) any offence which involves violence or a threat of violence to a person other than an offence—
(i) referred to in paragraph (a), or
(ii) under section 39,
(c) rape,
(d) rape under section 4 of the Act of 1990,
(e) sexual assault within the meaning of section 2 of the Act of 1990,
(f) aggravated sexual assault within the meaning of section 3 of the Act of 1990,
(g) an offence consisting of attempting or conspiring to commit, or aiding or abetting, counselling or procuring or inciting the commission of, an offence referred to in paragraph (a), (aa), (b), (c), (d), (e) or (f).
(6) In this section, a person is a “relevant person” in respect of another person if he or she—
(a) is the spouse or civil partner of that other person, or
(b) is not the spouse or civil partner of that other person and is not related to that other person within a prohibited degree of relationship but is or was in an intimate relationship with that other person.
Comments