Supreme Court to consider approach to sentencing for violent offences against intimate partners
The Supreme Court is to consider important legal issues with a view to clarifying the proper approach to sentencing for violent offences committed in the context of intimate-partner relationships.
The issues arise in a man's appeal against the near-doubling of his sentence over forcing his then-partner into the boot of her car and later savagely beating her.
In a recently published determination, a panel of three Supreme Court judges said the court will hear an appeal by Soufiane Mountassir, who is serving a 5½-year sentence after the Court of Appeal decided last October his original three-year sentence was too lenient.
The appeal raises issues of general public importance concerning the proper approach to sentencing in respect of offences of this kind, the judges said. The issues included the proper application and effect of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 in the context of violent offences involving intimate-partner relationships, an issue not previously considered by the Supreme Court.
READ MORE
It is in the interests of justice that sentencing practice in this area be clarified so far as possible, the judges said.
[
No Visible Bruises: Masterfully unpicking cliches around domestic violence
Opens in new window
]
Mountassir (40), with an address at Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in December 2023 to one count of false imprisonment in Dublin 8 and one count of assault causing harm to his then-partner on Blackhall Street, Dublin 7, in the early hours of November 13th, 2022.
He had been drinking, taking Dalmane and cocaine and smoking cannabis throughout the day of the attack.
Mountassir, who is wanted in Germany for arson, went into what his former partner called 'a blind rage', Judge Orla Crowe heard, and subjected her to one hour and 40 minutes of being beaten and kicked, including punching her and ramming her head against the steering wheel, causing her to fear for her life.
When imposing sentence, Judge Crowe said the victim had 'opened her home and heart' to Mountassir. The incident involved a 'sustained, humiliating, violent series of offending', she said.
Having set a headline sentence of five years for the false imprisonment offence and taken into account Mountassir's guilty plea and his personal circumstances as a foreign national with no family here, she imposed a three-year sentence for false imprisonment. The charge of assault was taken into consideration.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed the sentence as unduly lenient. Last October, the Court of Appeal agreed it was, overturned it and imposed a sentence of 5½ years.
The appeal court noted the serious violence used and that the victim's liberty was restrained multiple times, with significant trauma caused during the ordeal. The victim was forced into the car boot for 10 minutes before being manhandled into the passenger seat and driven around in a protracted ordeal, with physical violence used that resulted in injuries.
'There was dominance, coercion and an abuse of the power that comes with a male's greater physical strength,' it said. This was all within the context of an intimate relationship, and Mountassir's conduct was intended to maximise the distress of the victim, humiliate her and coerce her submission to his dominance, it said.
A hearing date for the Supreme Court appeal will be fixed later.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
07-06-2025
- Sunday World
Convicted drug dealer and former soccer club boss moved to Midlands jail
Andrew Noonan was jailed for 13-and-a-half years in relation to his 'high' level role in a €2.7 million heroin importation enterprise last month CONVICTED drug dealer and the former soccer club boss, Andrew Noonan has been transferred from Mountjoy to the Midlands Prison. Sources said the former manager of Bluebell United in Dublin, who was jailed for 13-and-a-half years in relation to his 'high' level role in a €2.769 million heroin importation enterprise last month – was moved for 'operational reasons.' These are understood to relate to the chronic overcrowding currently being experience by inmates in Mountjoy. Noonan role in the heroin importation scheme was discovered after gardaí posed as delivery men in a controlled delivery of the drugs to a co-accused, Keith Quinn (36) Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard last month that gardaí believe 45-year-old Noonan had a supervisory role in relation to his co-accused Quinn and say Noonan's level in the overall context of the enterprise was 'high.' Andrew Noonan News in 90 Seconds - 7th June Quinn pleaded guilty in relation to his own role and received a seven-and-a-half year sentence with the final three-and-a-half years suspended in 2021. This was later increased by the Court of Appeal to eight years imprisonment with 18 months suspended. He has since been released. Noonan, of Redhills Park, Ellistown, Co Kildare, was convicted following a trial of three drugs offences in relation to the possession, sale and supply of the drugs at Rosemount Business Park, Dublin 11, on August 5th, 2020. He was also convicted of possession of a phone with an encrypted application, Enigma, giving rise to a reasonable inference that it was to be used in connection with a drug trafficking offence. He was acquitted of possession of a signal blocker. The court heard Noonan does not accept the verdict of the jury and denied any role in relation to the drugs. Garda Redmond O'Leary of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau told John Berry SC, prosecuting, that in August 2020, British police authorities became suspicious of a package travelling through the UK. It was analysed and tested positive for heroin. A garda operation involving a controlled delivery was put in place, and the package was delivered to Quinn's workplace in the Dublin industrial estate by a garda posing as a UPS driver. Internal CCTV of the workplace showed Quinn taking out his phone and interacting with the package in what was later found to be a picture and text messages sent to Noonan. No suspicion attaches to Quinn's former workplace. Quinn placed the package in his car and was observed driving in convoy with another car, driven by Noonan, to another office in the estate. Quinn got out, placed the package in the office and then drove in convoy with Noonan to a coffee shop where gardaí intercepted them. Noonan was, at this stage, found in possession of the keys to the office where Quinn had placed the package. Three phones were also retrieved from Noonan's person and his car. Passing sentence, Judge Elma Sheahan said foremost in the court's mind in sentencing was the devastating harm caused by the drugs trade, which the court deals with on a daily basis. She said the value and quantity of the seizure were also critical factors. Judge Sheahan said at the time of this offending, Noonan was the manager of a soccer team and employed in a family business. She said he was in a position of trust and influence over young men. She said this did not sit easy and offends all society expects from an individual in such a role.
Sunday World
05-06-2025
- Sunday World
'Danger to society' who subject ex-partner to ‘reign of terror' is resentenced
Scott Donegan pleaded guilty at Ennis Circuit Court to the false imprisonment of an ex-partner during a four-hour ordeal at his home on November 9, 2022. The Court of Appeal has ruled that a sentence of eight years and seven months was not unduly lenient for a 'danger to society' who inflicted 'a reign of terror' on his former partner and threatened to stab a man to death. However, the court ruled that the cumulative sentences imposed on Scott Donegan (39) could not stand due to how they were structured by the sentencing judge, and he was resentenced today. Donegan, of Knockmore, Kilmilhil, Co Clare, pleaded guilty at Ennis Circuit Court to the false imprisonment of an ex-partner during a four-hour ordeal at his home on November 9, 2022. He also pleaded guilty to producing a knife at the same address on the same date contrary to Section 11 of the Offensive Weapons and Firearms Act. Detective Garda Donal Corkery told the Ennis court that Donegan took the mobile phone off the woman and forced her to sit in a chair 'where she was frozen out of fear due to the aggressive behaviour of Mr Donegan'. Scott Donegan News in 90 Seconds - 5th June 2025 Det Corkery stated that Donegan ran at the woman with a knife and put her in fear. The detective said Donegan then grabbed the woman by the throat and squeezed her windpipe. He said that Donegan told her that he had a Glock handgun and a shotgun. Det Corkery said that four of Donegan's previous convictions were for assault against three ex-partners when Donegan went under the name of Paul McMenamy. This incident was committed while Donegan was on bail for a separate matter, relating to a charge of making threats to kill on April 19, 2021, when he verbally abused a man and threatened to stab him to death. The total sentence imposed for all offences at the Circuit Criminal Court in Ennis in September 2023 was eight years and seven months, with the final nine months suspended. Judge Francis Comerford imposed 20 months for the offence of making threats to kill, with this sentence made consecutive to a sentence of 83 months for the false imprisonment and the production of a knife. The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed this sentence, saying it was unduly lenient. In delivering judgement today, Mr Justice John Edwards said the court did not fault the sentencing judge for regarding the false imprisonment offence as being the most serious offence, as the judge had carefully assessed the respondent's culpability in a careful and rigorous manner. He said the sentencing judge was right in regarding the production of a knife as being an aggravating factor, as was the respondent's previous record. However, Mr Justice Edwards went on to say: 'The sentencing judge was significantly in error in how he structured his sentence.' He said it was clear that, where an offender is being sentenced for an offence committed while on bail, the sentence imposed should be made consecutive to the sentence imposed for the previous offence. Mr Justice Edwards said that the sentencing judge was required to make the sentences for false imprisonment and the production of a knife consecutive to any sentence imposed for the offence involving threats to kill. However, the sentencing judge had instead made the sentence for threats to kill consecutive to the other sentences. He said that while the court found that the sentencing judge's failure to apply the statute correctly made no practical difference to the overall sentence, the sentences could not stand as presently structured. He added that it did not follow, however, that the court regarded the overall sentence as unduly lenient. Quashing the original sentence and moving on to resentencing, Mr Justice Edwards said that for the offence of making threats to kill, the court would nominate a headline sentence of 25 months and discount five months to reflect mitigation, leaving 20 months. For the false imprisonment and the production of a knife, which were committed while the respondent was on bail, the court nominated a headline sentence of 10 years and five months and three years and four months, respectively. Having considered mitigating factors, he reduced the sentences to six years and eleven months and 25 months respectively, to run concurrently. Mr Justice Edwards said this was to be consecutive to the 20 months for the offence of making threats to kill. Mr Justice Edwards said the court would suspend the final nine months, making a cumulative sentence of seven years and ten months to be served. Conditions of the suspended portion of the sentence are that Donegan is to keep the peace for three years post release, have no contact with the injured parties, and submit to supervision by the probation services. In her victim impact statement, the Co Clare woman told the court that Scott Donegan 'is a danger to society, and he has scarred and damaged me for life'. The woman said that Donegan imposed 'a reign of terror' on her during the four-hour ordeal despite her begging him to stop. She said: 'I believed that I would be killed by him and never see my children or family again.'
Irish Independent
05-06-2025
- Irish Independent
Carlow brothers who went on a ‘crime spree' that left man in his 60s with traumatic brain injury appeal sentences
Today at 13:54 Two brothers who went on a Christmas Day 'crime spree' involving the arson of a car and a serious assault that left a man in his 60s with a traumatic brain injury have appealed their ten-year sentences. While barristers for Colin (36) and Glen Murphy (33) submitted to the Court of Appeal that the sentencing judge should not have imposed consecutive sentences, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy remarked that the assault of the man in his 60s was at the very top end of the scale and arguably could have been a section 4 assault, which is an offence of causing serious harm.
