Murderers appeal sentences following Supreme Court ruling

Eoin Reynolds

Two defendants who were under 18 when they were convicted of murder should not be sentenced to life, their lawyers have argued following a landmark Supreme Court ruling that has altered how the courts deal with child offenders.

Each of the young men was separately sentenced to life in detention with review after 13 years.

One of the defendants is now aged 19 and was 14 when he murdered Urantsetseg Tserendorj near Custom House Quay in Dublin in January 2021.

At a previous sentence appeal in December 2023 - before the Supreme Court's judgement - the defendant shouted "f**k off, get me out of this court," when the Court of Appeal on that occasion declined to reduce his prison term.

He also shouted, "fuck off smelly rats" and "smelly knackers" as staff ushered him to the cell area. The outburst came as the then Court President was offering his sympathies to the family of Ms Tserendorj.

The second defendant was four months shy of his 18th birthday when he murdered 20-year-old Cameron Blair at a house party in Cork in January 2020.

In a judgment delivered earlier this year by Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley, the Supreme Court found that life sentences for a child convicted of murder should only be imposed in exceptional cases where the evidence showed their intentions and actions were akin to those of an adult.

Ms Justice O'Malley found that the Central Criminal Court cannot review its own sentences, as had been envisaged in these and other cases.

She further stated that the courts are entitled to impose part-suspended sentences where a child's term of detention continues after they have turned 18.

At Thursday's hearing, lawyers for each of the accused said the "exceptional circumstances" identified by Ms Justice O'Malley do not apply to their clients' offending, and therefore life sentences would not be appropriate.

The three-judge court reserved judgment in both cases.

Ms Tserendorj was stabbed in the neck on a walkway between George’s Dock and Custom House Quay in the IFSC, Dublin, on January 20th 2021 and was declared dead nine days later.

The streets of Dublin were largely deserted at the time due to COVID-19 restrictions, and Ms Tserendorj was walking home from work alone when the teenager approached and asked for money.

When she said she did not have any, he produced a knife and stabbed her in the neck. He cycled away and later attempted to rob another woman.

Ms Tserendorj died from a lack of oxygen to the brain, having suffered a partially severed carotid artery. She had moved to Ireland with her husband and two children to find work approximately 15 years before she died.

The defendant denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was found guilty of her murder by a jury in 2022 following two trials. The first trial ended with a jury disagreement.

At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, Michael O'Higgins SC, for the defendant, said the exceptional circumstances identified by Ms Justice O'Malley as possibly resulting in a life sentence for a child include premeditation, luring of the victim, efforts to conceal guilt and intention to inflict sexual or particularly brutal violence.

Mr O'Higgins said there was no premeditated intention to kill in this case, his client did not lure the victim, and there was no suggestion of an intention to inflict sexual or particularly brutal physical violence.

Mr O'Higgins accepted that his client clearly intended to use a knife to commit a robbery which "developed into a fleeting intention to cause serious injury" when he got nothing from Ms Tserendorj.

He asked the court to consider his client's level of insight and understanding of what he was doing and its consequences, given his age and lack of maturity.

Mr O'Higgins told the court that his client has a "long list of mitigating factors", including that both his parents were addicted to drugs when he was born.

After the killing, he volunteered to tell gardai what he had done, fully cooperated, made full admissions and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He also has the support of his family, including his grandmother and her partner, counsel said.

Sean Guerin SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the court that this was an "intentional attack with a knife on a defenceless woman on a deserted street, late at night."

A short time earlier, the defendant had tried to rob a shop and shortly afterwards produced the knife when confronting another intended victim. Mr Guerin said it is open to the court to find that the "adult action" identified by the Supreme Court as necessary for a life sentence was present.

20-year-old college student Cameron Blair was stabbed in the neck at a house party on the Bandon Road in Cork city on January 16th, 2020. The teenager who plunged the knife into Mr Blair's neck pleaded guilty to his murder in 2020.

Karl Finnegan SC, for the defendant, today told the Court of Appeal that although his client was only four months shy of his 18th birthday, there is a presumption in law that as a 17-year-old, he was immature and should be sentenced accordingly.

Mr Finnegan acknowledged that his client's offending was "very serious" but, he said, it lacked the factors identified by Ms Justice O'Malley.

There was no planning or premeditation; he did not bring the knife to the party but armed himself while there and did not arrive with the intention to kill or cause serious injury.

Anne Rowland SC, for the DPP, said the defendant armed himself with a large knife which had a 21cm blade.

He put it in his pocket or down his trouser leg and used it to murder Mr Blair, who was acting as a peacemaker after an argument broke out between the students hosting the party and the defendants' friends.