JUDGEMENT has been reserved in the appeal by a Co Tyrone dissident republican jailed for providing his car which was used in an IRA murder bid operation against a PSNI officer.
Lawyers for Gavin Coyle told the Court of Appeal on Friday that the starting point for his sentence “was too high’' and the reduction in sentence for the delay in bringing the case to court “was too low’'.
Coyle (46) from Mullaghmore Drive, Omagh, was handed a six year sentence at Belfast Crown Court last October by the Belfast Recorder Judge Patricia Smyth for IRA membership and providing his car for a terrorist purpose.
The PSNI constable was off-duty when a bomb exploded under his car in the village of Spamount near Castlederg on May 12 2008, as he was driving to work.
He suffered serious leg injuries and was rescued by a member of the public, who dragged him from the wreckage shortly before it burst into flames.