Gavin Coyle: Court lengthens sentence over bomb attack on PSNI officer

Gavin Coyle pictured at an earlier hearing

The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence imposed on a man jailed over a Real IRA murder bid on a Catholic police officer in County Tyrone.

It found the original six-year term to have been "unduly lenient" and imposed a tariff of eight years.

Gavin Coyle, from Mullaghmore Drive, Omagh, was convicted of IRA membership and providing a car, knowing it would be used for the purposes of terrorism.

The police officer suffered serious leg injuries in the 2008 attack.

The officer was off-duty when a booby-trap device planted under his car exploded in Spamount near Castlederg as he was driving to work

Forty-six-year-old Coyle's car was used in the bomb's deployment.

The attack on the off-duty officer happened near Castlederg in May 2008

An earlier court hearing was told the injured officer suffered "permanent disfiguring injuries" after the Real IRA attack.

Coyle had previous convictions for weapons offences.

The judge said his offending was "indicative of a person committed to acts of terrorism".

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She described the attack as cowardly, calculated and cold-blooded and said it was "carried out with one aim: to take the life of a police officer".

Coyle was sentenced in 2023 but later appealed the sentence as being excessive.

The Director of Public Prosecutions also referred it to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it was too lenient.

'Unduly lenient' sentence

In its ruling, the court said the sentence reached by the trial judge "could not on any reading be said to be manifestly excessive for serious terrorist offending of this nature".

It stated the "only valid question" was whether it was lenient.

It went on: "Applying the relevant principles and upon a careful analysis of the case, the court considered that the sentence was unduly lenient for offending of this nature."

It stated the sentence should have been in the region of 10 years, before a 20% reduction because of Coyle's guilty plea.

It substituted a custodial sentence of eight years for the tariff imposed by the trial judge.

Two thirds of the sentence will be spent in custody and one third on licence.