A Donegal man who twice rammed his neighbour's home with his car, broke her jaw and tried to escape gardaí by swimming to Tyrone has had his jail sentence doubled by the Court of Appeal. The Director of Public Prosecutions had submitted to the Court of Appeal that an 18-month jail sentence was unduly lenient in the case. The court heard Kelly caused €13,000 worth of damage after ramming his vehicle into an Audi car owned by the Mitchells and caused criminal damage to their home before he broke Ms Mitchell's jaw. However, Mr Justice McCarthy said a pre-mitigation headline sentence of three-and-a-half years for the assault for the respondent was "too low". He set a new, pre-mitigation sentence of four-and-a-half years for the assault causing harm on Ms Mitchell and mitigated that to three years' imprisonment.

Source: Irish Independent July 21, 2021 17:37 UTC