O’Donoghue sentence - Reining in victim impact statements

FAR-REACHING repercussions for people who make victim impact statements will follow a ruling by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, stemming from its refusal of an application against the leniency of the prison sentence given to Wayne O’Donoghue for the manslaughter of 11-year-old Robert Holohan.

From the moment of Robert’s disappearance to the discovery of his body in a ditch 10 miles from his home near Midleton in east Cork, the local community and the nation were convulsed by this harrowing case.

The decision not to increase the student’s four-year sentence for killing his schoolboy neighbour in January 2005, means the court was fully satisfied the sentence handed down by Mr Justice Paul Carney was appropriate and soundly based on the evidence before him.