BREAKING: Kilkenny 'crime spree' brothers appeal sentences for arson and assault

Two brothers who went on a Christmas Day “crime spree” involving the arson of a car and a serious assault that left a man in his 60s with a traumatic brain injury have appealed their ten-year sentences.  

While barristers for Colin (36) and Glen Murphy (33) submitted to the Court of Appeal that the sentencing judge should not have imposed consecutive sentences, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy remarked that the assault of the man in his 60s was at the very top end of the scale and arguably could have been a section 4 assault, which is an offence of causing serious harm.  

The brothers, from Kyleshall, Raheendoran, County Carlow, stole a tractor on December 25, 2022, and crashed it into an Eir telecommunication pole before hijacking a car being driven by a woman.

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The pair then smashed a vodka bottle over an innocent man’s head and viciously attacked another man, leaving him in a coma, before burning out a vehicle in the middle of the road.  

The sentencing court heard that they caused €1,722 damage to the telecommunication pole and blocked the road after crashing the stolen tractor for a final time.

They attempted to get into the woman’s car and after she called family members who arrived at the scene, the brothers got out of the woman’s vehicle and attacked her relative, smashing the vodka bottle over his head.  

They then smashed up the woman’s car as locals called gardaí. Witnesses heard a commotion with dogs barking, shouting and screaming and what sounded like shots being fired and the sky lighting up with flames.

Locals walked in the direction and saw a vehicle had been set on fire.  

The unconscious body of a neighbour was lying on the road and the person, who initially could not be identified due to his significant injuries, was covered in blood and his top had been removed.

He was taken to ICU with “traumatic brain injuries” which resulted in being put in an induced coma.  

At their sentencing hearing at Kilkenny Circuit Court in March of last year, Judge Cormac Quinn described the offences as “a substantial crime spree” and jailed both brothers for 10 years each.  

Judge Quinn convicted Glen Murphy of criminal damage to a MPV and sentenced him to two years, with a further two years for criminal damage to the Eir pole.  

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He also imposed a three-year sentence for the assault causing harm to the man he struck with a bottle and a five-year sentence for the assault on the man who was left unconscious on the road.

All sentences were to run consecutively with the final two years suspended.  

In relation to Colin Murphy, the judge convicted him of arson and sentenced him to seven years, with a further five years for assault causing harm.  

In launching an appeal against their sentences today (Thursday), counsel for Glen Murphy, David Bulbulia SC said that while the assault on the man in his 60s was very serious and the sort of case where the maximum headline sentence of five years was appropriate, no mitigation had been applied by the sentencing court.  

He said that in deciding to sentence Glen Murphy to the maximum of five years, the court needed to identify why the  maximum was warranted, but the judge did not identify  any exceptional circumstances for this.  

Mr Bulbulia went on to say that the sentencing judge decided to impose five consecutive sentences, which counsel submitted was an error as he treated each one of the five offences as distinct.   

Counsel submitted that the theft of the tractor and crashing into the pole was phase one of the offending, with the damage to the car and the assault of one man as phase two, before the assault of the second man constituted phase three.  

Mr Bulbulia said that once the sentencing judge decided to make all five sentences consecutive and was “getting into double figures”, this ought to have triggered some consideration of the totality principle.  

Ms Justice Kennedy said that the assault on the man in his 60s was at the very top end of the scale and was arguably a section 4 assault, which is assault causing serious harm.  

“This man has a traumatic brain injury and a lifelong injury,” she said, with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy adding that it was astonishing how fortunate the appellant had been to get convicted of a section 3 assault.  

Counsel for Colin Murphy, Kathleen Leader SC said that the sentences imposed on her client should have been concurrent as they were all part of the same event. She said there had been an error in principle where the arson was placed, as the headline sentence of 14 years put it in the very highest band of offending.  

Ms Justice Kennedy pointed out that the injured party had been lying close to the vehicle in an unconscious state at the time, which made this a very serious offence in terms of arson.  

Ms Leader said there was no evidence that this was a deliberate act of revenge, with the appellants having no plan and their actions being “pure chaos”.   

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dylan Redmond BL said that the assault fell into the worst category, as there were injuries inflicted on a man in his 60s by two men in their 20s that left him with a traumatic brain injury.

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He said that the injured party had to relearn to walk and talk following the attack.  

He said that it is well established that when there are different victims, consecutive sentences might be imposed, adding that the State did not accept that this was all part of one transaction, as there were different distinct victims at each stage.  

He said that the injured party was left in such a condition that his own brother did not recognise him, while members of the community thought he was dead and put a coat over him. 

He added that there was no obvious logic to then setting the car on fire, with the presence of a prostrate and unconscious person on the road when the car became totally engulfed in flames meaning this was arson which had the potential to cause a loss of life.  

Mr Justice McCarthy, presiding, said the court would reserve judgement in the case. 

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