Stephanie Ng case: Boy who attempted murder has review pushed back

A boy who tried to murder a woman in Dún Laoghaire after meeting her on social media will have to serve at least two more years in prison following a rare appeal from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The 17-year-old south Dublin boy will now not be released until he is at least 22 after the Court of Appeal pushed back the date of his sentence review to 2025.

The boy, who cannot be named due to his age, was sentenced to eleven years last year for luring Stephanie Ng (25) to a secluded area where he choked her into unconsciousness and slashed her throat in a carefully planned attack in December 2017.

The sentencing judge ordered that the sentence be reviewed after five years. The DPP argued the date of the first review was too early given the premeditated nature of the crime and expert evidence that the boy would still pose a threat to others if he was released today.

Leniency appeals have been trending upwards in recent years - last year the DPP lodged 46 such appeals compared to 200 appeals taken by defendants arguing their sentence was too severe.

Assessments

However, leniency appeals are still extremely rare in cases where the accused was under-18 at the time of the offence. Legal sources said they were not aware of any such case in the last decade.

In raising the minimum review period from five to seven years yesterday, the Court of Appeal effectively established a model for how serious juvenile offenders should be dealt with in future. It ordered assessments be carried out on the boy every two years so the reviewing court has a wealth of information come 2025.

The boy, who is due to move to an adult prison soon after he turns 18, is unlikely to be released following his first review. Instead the court is likely to resentence him based on his treatment progress.