Attorney General v McGann

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 25 August 1927
• Date: 25 August 1927
• Court: Court of Appeal (Irish Free State)

Attorney-General v. M'Gann

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

and

EDWARD M'GANN (1)

Court of Crim. App.

Criminal appeal - Leave to appeal - Application for extension of time - Sufficiency of grounds for leave to appeal - Alleged innocency of charge - Inability to procure legal assistance - Application to call additional witness - Admission of fresh evidence on appeal - Courts of Justice Act,1924 (No. 10 of 1924), sects. 31, 32, and 63 - Criminal Appeal Rules,1924, rr. 4 and 40.

It is not the practice of the Court of Criminal Appeal to entertain any application for an extension of time, whether to apply to the trial Judge for a certificate for leave to appeal, or to give notice of appeal, or to give notice of application for leave to appeal, if the applicant does not at the time of applying for such extension of time show that he proposes to rely upon grounds of appeal or grounds for applying for leave to appeal (as the came may be) which are grounds such as can be entertained by the Court in the exercise of its statutory jurisdiction.

Accordingly, the Court of Criminal Appeal refused an application for an extension of time within which to apply for leave to appeal (the applicant having been sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour for indecent assault, and the Judge having refused a certificate for leave to appeal) where the grounds upon which the applicant based his application for leave to appeal were (1) his innocence of the charge; (2) his inability to procure legal assistance for his defence at the trial; and (3) his desire to call an additional witness: the Court of Criminal Appeal holding as to (1) that an averment of innocence per se was not a ground of appeal to which the Court could listen, as if the Court admitted an appeal on that ground alone it would be usurping the place of the jury; as to (2), that the want of professional aid was not in itself a legal ground of appeal; and as to (3), that, on the facts, the Court could not grant the application to take the proposed new evidence.

Practice and procedure as to applications to allow fresh evidence on appeal laid down by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Interlocutory Application to the Court of Criminal Appeal for an extension of time within which to apply for leave to appeal. Edward M'Gann, the appellant, was tried on the 16th June, 1927, at Ennis Circuit Court, on a charge of indecent assault, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The Circuit Court Judge...