A Limerick man jailed for firing a sawn-off shotgun at a patrol car carrying three gardaí has had his prison sentence increased from five to eight years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Shane Shapland (23), Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, was sentenced to five years in jail by Judge Carroll Moran at Limerick Circuit Court last July after he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Ballygrennan Close, Moyross, on May 18th, 2004.
Shapland, whose mother Jenny unsuccessfully contested the Limerick East byelection for Sinn Féin in 1998 following the death of Labour TD Jim Kemmy, admitted firing twice at a Garda car which went to the scene of a crash.
Evidence was given that the back of the patrol car was peppered with pellets. Shapland knew two of the three gardaí in the patrol car and had previous convictions for the possession of ammunition and a knife, and for public order offences.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, counsel for the DPP argued the sentence was unduly lenient.
Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, with Mr Justice Paul Gilligan and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, said this was an "outrageous type of offence". The court held the trial judge had erred in principle in the sentence imposed and said it would replace the five-year sentence with a 10-year sentence, with the last two years suspended.
The court noted that a sentence of 10 years was considered by Judge Moran but that term was reduced by three years in light of Shapland having entered a plea of guilty before the trial started and by a further two years on Shapland's promising to stay away from certain people of bad influence in Limerick.
Mr Justice Finnegan said the Court of Criminal Appeal considered the reductions granted were "excessive". He said Shapland had not co-operated with gardaí.
The appeal court directed that the suspension of the final two years of a 10-year sentence was a "more appropriate" discount.
Conor O'Sullivan, for the DPP, had argued the appeal was being made on the grounds that the sentence was too lenient and that the trial judge erred in not giving "sufficient weight" to all the circumstances.
Opposing the appeal, David Goldberg SC, for Shapland, said the original sentence was proportionate and appropriate.