Former soldier Cathal Crotty jailed for two years as Court of Appeal overturns suspended sentence

The Court of Appeal has intervened in the case of Cathal Crotty, a former soldier, who had previously received a fully suspended sentence for assaulting Natasha O'Brien. The incident occurred when O'Brien challenged Crotty's public display of homophobic behavior, leading him to violently beat her unconscious. Following an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the court determined that the initial sentence, which allowed Crotty to avoid prison time, was excessively lenient and instead imposed a two-year prison term to reflect the seriousness of the crime.

The Court of Appeal has overturned the fully suspended sentence handed down to former soldier Cathal Crotty and jailed him for two years for beating Natasha O'Brien unconscious in a public street.

The three-judge court imposed the sentence after an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who argued that the fully suspended three-year sentence imposed by the Circuit Court last year was unduly lenient.

Read at Irish Independent