Director of Public Prosecutions v Curtis

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)
• Judge: Ms. Justice Ní Raifeartaigh
• Judgment Date: 23 April 2024
• Neutral Citation: [2024] IECA 101
• Docket Number: Appeal Number: CCACJ0217/2023

Between/

The People at the Suit of the Director of Public Prosecutions

Appellant

and

Cameron Curtis

Respondent

[2024] IECA 101

Birmingham P.

McCarthy J.

Ní Raifeartaigh J.

Appeal Number: CCACJ0217/2023

Bill Number: DUDP0090/2023

THE COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL

UNAPPROVED

JUDGMENT of the Court delivered on the 23 ^rd day of April 2024 by Ms. Justice Ní Raifeartaigh

1 . This is an appeal brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the ground that the sentence imposed on the Respondent was unduly lenient within the meaning of s.2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. It involves what is now frequently referred to as “intimate partner violence”.

2 . The respondent had pleaded guilty to a number of individual counts of assault causing harm contrary to s.3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, and a count of false imprisonment contrary to s.15 of the same act. The sentences imposed were concurrent sentences of two years and six months, with the final 12 months suspended subject to conditions. The sentences imposed were backdated to the 19 ^th of September 2022 when the respondent was in custody in relation to these offences.

Evidence in the Sentencing Court

3 . Evidence was heard by the Circuit Court Judge on the 24 ^th of May 2023. The offences related to four different dates from the 19 ^th of July 2022 to the 16 ^th of August 2022, a period of approximately four weeks.

4 . Both of the parties were young adults. The respondent was aged nineteen at the time, and the injured party, his partner, aged twenty.

5 . The respondent entered an early plea to one of the s.3 assault counts on the indictment and entered a plea to other counts on the date of the sentence hearing. The other offences on the indictment were taken into consideration (these included a threat to kill, production of a knife, and criminal damage — to an iPhone belonging to the injured party and to a doorframe of a premises the respondent and injured party were in at the time)) on a “full facts” basis.

6 .

The first incident, 19th July 2022

7 . The first incident (count 1 on the indictment, a s.3 assault) took place at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, on the 19 ^th July 2022 when the respondent and the injured party were staying in one of the hotel rooms. The respondent accused the injured party of cheating on him before threatening her with a glass bottle. He then kicked her in the face and temple ten or eleven times. He struck her with his fist while screaming at her. Gardaí were called by the hotel staff. At the time, the injured party would not proceed with a complaint although she did attend hospital with the accused and was given anti-inflammatory medication.

Events on the 12th–13 ^th August 2022

8 . The second incident (count 2 on the indictment) took place on the 12 ^th of August 2022 and related to events that took place at the Binary Hub on Bonham Street, Dublin 8. The premises were registered to the injured party's sister but the injured party and the respondent had been staying there. The respondent on this date took exception to the injured party not providing him with the password to her Snapchat account and he slapped her. The injured party then fell asleep for a while before she woke to the respondent grabbing her by the neck and again demanding her Snapchat password. The respondent then assaulted the injured party for five minutes by kicking both of her legs, punching her on the side of the head and jaw before slapping her again, punching her on the back and spitting on her face. The respondent accused her of cheating on him and punched her to the right side of the face.

9 . Counts 5 and 6 on the indictment related to assaults which took place on the following morning, the 13 ^th of August 2022, at the same location, the Binary Hub. The respondent apologised to the injured party for the injuries he had caused the previous day but then became violent again and punched her on the left side of her face and pulled her by her hair around the bathroom. She began to bleed heavily at this stage as a result of the punch. There was then a ‘period of normality’ for a few hours before the respondent again attacked the injured party and kneeled on her chest for five minutes. He told her he would kill her and he dragged the injured party around the room by her hair.

10 . He then grabbed the injured party around the neck and brought her into the bathroom, before throwing her on the bathroom floor and proceeding to lock her in the bathroom for a period of 45 minutes. The respondent stated that he would not let the injured party out of the bathroom unless she gave him passwords for her Snapchat account.

11 . He proceeded to take a knife from the kitchen and threatened the injured party with it when he released her from the bathroom. After a 30 minute ‘period of normality’, the respondent threw the injured party's phone at her, hitting her in the head, kicked her in the legs and spat at her. This assault lasted for approximately 25 minutes and the injured party confirmed that she was in throbbing pain as a result of the assault.

12 . The respondent then put the injured party in a chokehold, saying that she had been unfaithful to him with two other males, before grabbing her by the hair and pulling her to the ground. He crouched over her while he assaulted her further and again spat in her face. At this stage the injured part was asking the respondent to stop hurting her and he stopped and began crying.

13 . After 45 minutes, the respondent became violent towards the injured party again and wrapped his arms around her neck and dragged her into the bathroom. He threatened her that he was getting a scissors and the injured party confirmed to Gardaí that she believed that she was going to die at this point. She managed to get out of the bathroom before locking herself in the bedroom and the respondent tried to break down the bedroom door. The injured party managed to go to a communal area to raise the alarm and Gardaí arrived and the injured party was treated for her injuries before returning to her family home. Photographs of the injured parties' injuries were handed up to the sentencing judge and have been seen by this Court.

Events on the 16 ^th August 2022

14 . The last date of offending is the 16 ^th of August 2022, again at the Binary Hub (counts 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). The respondent came to the room after he had been messaging the injured party. He went through the injured party's mobile phone before becoming violent and demanding her password to her Snapchat account. At this stage both the respondent and the injured party were in the kitchen and the respondent punched the injured party twice in quick succession on the right side of the cheek and kicked her six or seven times to the left thigh. The injured party was crying and begging the respondent to stop. She said the assault lasted three minutes and that she was screaming for her sister to come into the kitchen.

15 . The injured party's sister stepped in to stop the incident but the respondent again attacked the injured party by strangling her by grabbing her by the neck with his hand and squeezing her throat. The respondent then punched the injured party four or five times in the back of the head after the injured party confirmed that she was going to ring 999.

16 . There was a further assault in the courtyard of the complex when the respondent squeezed the injured party's throat and the injured party later told the Gardaí that she felt pain, could not breathe and felt like she was going to get sick. The injured party was then able to contact Gardaí after telling the respondent that she was going to do laundry in the laundry room.

17 . Gardaí attended at the scene and the respondent was arrested and conveyed to Kilmainham Garda Station. Photographs of the injuries suffered by the injured party in respect of the series of assaults were shown to the sentencing court and have been seen by this Court.

Material before the sentencing judge

18 . A victim impact report and a psychological report were before the sentencing court. The injured party expressed the view in her victim impact report that she had not been damaged by the incidents and her comments were supportive of the respondent.

19 . The psychological report indicated that the respondent had grown up in very adverse circumstances, with violence in the home on the part of his father, addiction problems on the part of both his parents, and mental health difficulties on the part of his mother, with the result that he had been taken into care at the age of ten. It also indicated that his intellectual functioning was at a low level, that he had little education, and had a history of addiction and self-harming. It indicated that he had considerable problems in terms of emotional regulation. It considered that he was at “moderate” risk of re-offending. It also indicated that the couple had a baby two days before the assessment who had died shortly after birth.

20 . The respondent had no previous convictions.

21 . Sentence was adjourned to facilitate the preparation of a probation report and this was available on the adjourned date of 13 ^th July 2023 when the sentence was imposed. The probation report considered the Respondent to be in the “high risk” category but also considered that the service could work with him and made certain recommendations in the event of a suspension of sentence.

22 . In mitigation, counsel for the Respondent relied upon his early guilty pleas which were of particular assistance in this case given the attitude of the injured party, his (limited) admissions to the Gardaí, the absence of previous convictions, his young age, the adverse circumstances of his upbringing as detailed in the psychological and probation reports, his addictions, his low intellectual functioning (again as set out...