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The appellant pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court on 26 August 1999 to two counts:
Making a threat to kill, contrary to section 16 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
The appellant served a notice of appeal containing two main grounds (a) that the sentence was manifestly excessive and/or wrong in principle (b) that the judge did not reduce the custodial element of the sentence sufficiently to take proper account of the period of probation. Gillen J gave leave to appeal, limited to the second ground. At the hearing before us Mr Cushinan did not press the first ground, although not abandoning it, and concentrated on the second.
The appellant, who is aged 25 years, has a record involving burglary and theft going back to 1991. The most recent of this nature � though not the last involving dishonesty -- was a conviction on 20 October 1997, when Lisburn Magistrates' Court imposed a sentence of four months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.
The issue upon which the argument centred was whether the judge, in making an allowance of ten months against the custodial element while ordering that the probation element should last for two years, acted in contravention of the principles which he should have applied in making a custody probation order. Article 24 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 makes provision for custody probation orders in the following terms:
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