Andrew Carey
DESPITE the presence of four armed Gardaí and prison officers, Wayne Dundon (37) casually spoke in jovial form with his legal team after they successfully staved off a Court of Appeal challenge by the State to increase the gangland killer’s sentence for threatening to kill a Limerick woman five years ago.
Dundon and his brother John were both convicted at the Special Criminal Court in April 2012 of making threats to members of the Collins family, namely April and her mother Alice.
Dundon, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins, was also convicted of intimidating a potential witness in criminal proceedings.
He was jailed on April 18, 2012 for a total of six years in prison on four charges while his brother John was sentenced to a total of four and a half years.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence handed down to Wayne Dundon stating that it was unduly lenient.
Shane Costello SC, told the three-judge Court of Appeal of Mr Justices Alan Mahon and John Edwards led by Mr Justice George Bermingham, that it was the view of the DPP that the Special Criminal Court erred in its ruling in not allowing the submission of a victim impact statement and that a similar, and relevant previous conviction for threatening to kill a named barman in Limerick was not properly considered.
Mr Justice George Bermingham contested that such submissions may not always be necessary as the court of sentence may also have been the court of trial and the views of the victim would have been heard during the currency of the trial.
Arguing that the sentencing court should have accepted the submissions and consider them allowing the other side to submit or object on parts, Mr Costello said that “in fact an objection was made and it was just decided that victim impact statements would not be allowed”.
“If this is to be the accepted case, then the impact of an offence on the life of an injured party would never be expressed before a court just because the defence objects to it and the only way for it to be heard is for the injured party to come back before the court and the offender, give oral evidence and be subject to cross examination. Basically exposing themselves again.”
Mr Costello furthered that there was no evidence, from the transcript, to suggest that the judges had given ample consideration to the relevant previous conviction of Wayne Dundon, where he threatened to kill a named Limerick barman after his sister was refused entry to a pub. Dundon was jailed for seven years for that offence.
Mr Justice Bermingham said that maybe the seven-year sentence was handed down “because the threat was followed by an actual shooting”.
Opposing the application of the DPP, Michael Bowman SC for Wayne Dundon said that the trial and sentencing court was a “collegiate court of experience” and had considered everything relating to the witnesses and victims during the trial.
He also added that if there was such an “egregious error in sentencing”, then an appeal on undue leniency given to John Dundon should also be before the court, “but that is not the case because the sentences are on the mid to upper level as it is”.
Mr Bowman added that it was “incomprehensible to think that the sentencing judges forgot about the previous convictions as everything relating to submissions, details of antecedent history and decision happened in immediate succession”.
Mr Justice Bermingham said that the court decided not to review the sentence given to Wayne Dundon and that “reasons would be given at a later stage”.
