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specified period. For example, the prisoner might be sentenced to ten years imprisonment
with the latter six years suspended on condition that during the latter period s/he keep the
peace andbe of good behaviour pursuant to a recognisance. 112
Usually, the convicted person is obliged to enter a peace bond for the period of the
suspension. Unlike the “Butler Order”, there is no review held after the initial period of
custody. Instead, the suspended part of the sentence is pronounced by the court
simultaneously with the custodial part of the sentence. Thus, the court, having
pronounced sentence in full, to encompass the initial period of definite custody to be
served and the suspensory period thereafter, is then functus officio. Such court, unlike the
court makinga “Butler Order” no longer retains seisin of the case.
The frequency by which the Central and Circuit Criminal Courts dispose of cases by way
of part-suspended sentences without constructing the orders in the manner of a “Butler
Order” demonstrates the affinity which the courts attach to both retributive and
controlling approaches in the disposal of criminal cases. The frequency of use of the part
suspended sentence in Ireland was unknown prior to this study. The part suspended
sentence is counted as a custodial sentence for statistical purposes only. Thus the particular
disposal remains hidden within the cohort of custodial sentences. To ascertain data on the
use of the disposal in the Circuit Criminal Court, the court which uses part suspended
sentence with greatest regularity, the writer examined the full cohort of convictions in the
Circuit Criminal Court in Cork andwas facilitated in a similar surveyin the Circuit Criminal
Courts in Dublin for the year 2006. 113 In the sample survey of part suspended sentences
for 2006 the writer found that the Circuit Criminal Court imposed a part suspended
sentence in 40.1% of the total custodial sentences actually imposed in the Dublin Circuit
Criminal Court. While in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court, that court imposed a part
suspended sentence in 37.93% of all actual custodial sentences. In the Central Criminal
Court, using full data, it was found 47.45% of actual custodial sentences where the court
hada discretion were partiallysuspended. 114
112 The factual sentence in Michael O’Brien –v- Governor of Limerick Prison. [1997] 2 ILRM, 249
113 The writer attended at the offices of the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork in September 2007 and in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court office in October 2007
to examine the case books.
114 Data on the frequencyof use of the part suspended sentence is not available in anypublished source. To access this information the writer conducteda
surveyof all sentences imposedat two of the busiest Circuit Court Criminal Courts in the State for the year 2006. From this data it was possible to count the
number of part suspended sentences imposed. In Dublin Circuit Criminal Court 40.1% of all custodial sentences were partly suspended, whereas in Cork
37.93% of all actual custodial sentences were partially suspended (Dublin full sentence of imprisonment 333, partially suspended 223; Cork Circuit Criminal
282