Life sentence cannot be extended

A judge has said it is regrettable the law doesn’t allow her to extend the life sentence of a convicted murderer who punched a prison nurse in the face.

Jeffrey Dumbrell, aged 36, described by his barrister as a “notorious” criminal, punched the nurse as she was delivering his medication in Wheatfield Prison’s maximum security unit.

His current jail sentence cannot be extended, Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, told the court, as “you can’t make a sentence consecutive to a life sentence”.

The courts have ruled previously that a life sentence cannot be extended for new offending while in prison because technically a life sentence never ends. When life sentence prisoners are released, it is on “permanent temporary release” meaning the sentence is still active.

Judge Leonie Reynolds said yesterday that the court would have extended the sentence if allowed and “it is a matter of some regret that the law doesn’t allow for the imposition of a consecutive sentence”. She said that because of this, “Mr Dumbrell may feel he is at liberty to commit these offences”.

Judge Reynolds imposed a two-year sentence which will run alongside both the life sentence and another sentence Dumbrell received for threatening to rip off a prison officer’s head in 2014.

She said the attack was an “appalling act of thuggery against a medical professional going about her duties”.

Dumbrell pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to nurse officer Donna Canavan on July 19, 2015.

John Berry, defending, said it would be easy to call the sentencing an academic exercise. “But this is extraordinarily real for the victim in this case and for Mr Dumbrell,” he said.