Philip Sheedy has been given leave to appeal the severity of his sentence. Mr. Sheedy is the Dublin architect at the centre of the legal and political controversy over the handling of his drink-driving case. The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court gave the 31-year-old leave to appeal the prison sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
18 months ago, Mr Sheedy was imprisoned for four years when he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of a woman, but was subsequently released in controversial circumstances. In court today, Mr Justice Matthews said he would welcome an appropriate forum to examine what he called the collateral matters in the case. Eighteen months ago, Philip sheedy pleaded guilty to two charges, dangerous driving causing the death of Ann Ryan and driving with excess alcohol. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment, with an inbuilt review after two years. At the time, he made no appeal.
In cross-examination today, Philip Sheedy said that his legal team advised him to seek to have the review date removed, rather than appeal the four-year sentence. He denied, to counsel for the DPP, that the reason he wanted the review lifted was to enable him to get temporary release. Senior counsel Patrick McEntee for Philip Sheedy said that his client was in a state of shock after the sentence was imposed and believed he should be pursuing the removal of the two-year review.
He said that it was only after the review date had been lifted that he then became aware that it meant that he could then have to serve three years instead of two. Last November, he was freed by Mr Justice Cyril Kelly after serving eleven months of his four-year sentence. Mr. Justice Kelly suspended the remaining three years of his sentence on Sheedy's entering a bond of good behaviour for the period.
However, in March, when the DPP challenged the decision to free him, Mr. Sheedy voluntarily returned to prison. He is now in the Curragh prison. Mr. Justice Matthews said that his original four-year sentence in October 1997 had an in-built review after two years, which should surely have been in the offender's favour. By having the review date removed, the sentence was now four years, which was a sentence he had never intended to deliver.
In his judgement, he said that there was, what he called, collateral material which were hugely significant in this case. But, he said, he regretted that today's hearing was not the appropriate forum to examine them. He said that his original sentence was a structured one, to balance the gravity of the offence of dangerous driving causing death with the real personal circumstances of the offender, having regard to public policy. Mr. Sheedy was taken back to the Curragh prison after the hearing. His legal team will now appeal the severity of the sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
