Private Waters

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Courts-Martial Appeal Court
• Judge: Blavney J.
• Judgment Date: 15 February 1993
• Neutral Citation: 1998 WJSC-CMAC 13073
• Docket Number: 3CM/92
• Date: 15 February 1993

PRIVATE WATERS

PRIVATE MICHAEL WATERS

Appellant

1998 WJSC-CMAC 13073

3CM/92

THE COURTS-MARTIAL APPEAL COURT

Words & Phrases:

CF

Subject Headings:

*

Blavney J.

1 This is an appeal by Private Michael Waters against a decision of a Court-Martial by which he was found guilty of desertion. He was directed to be imprisoned for twenty-one days and to be discharged from the army.

2 Mr. O'Keeffe, acting on behalf of Mr. Waters, accepts that before this Court can interfere in any way with the decision of the Court-Martial that it is necessary that he should show that that decision was in some way wrong in principle. He says that there was an error in principle - the principle he says was that of proportionality. In other words in effect that the punishment decided upon by the Court-Martial should have been proportionate to the particular offence. That perhaps is another way simply of saying that the sentence was excessively severe.

3 The Court is not satisfied that a principle of proportionality does, in fact, exist while obviously a court always has to look at a severity of sentence but even if the Court were to accept that...