DPP v Donaghy

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: McCarthy J.
• Judgment Date: 25 July 1988
• Neutral Citation: 1988 WJSC-CCA 2029
• Docket Number: No. 50/1987
• Court: Court of Criminal Appeal
• Date: 25 July 1988

1988 WJSC-CCA 2029

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL

McCarthy J.

Egan J.

Blayney J.

No. 50/1987

DPP v. DONAGHY

THE PEOPLE (at the suite of the Director of of PublicProsecutions)

- v -

YVONNE DONAGHY

Citations:

DPP, PEOPLE V WALSH 1980 IR 294

AG, PEOPLE V O'BRIEN 1965 IR 142

Synopsis:

CRIMINAL LAW

Arrest

Validity - Purpose - Dual motive - Court appearance - Identification of suspect - On 5/10/86 pedestrian was attacked and robbed by three youths and a girl - On 3/4/87 the appellant was convicted in the Circuit Court on counts which charged her with having robbed and assaulted the pedestrian on that occasion - The appellant was sentenced to two years imprisonment - The appellant had been arrested at 6.30 a.m. on 13/10/86 by a garda who had reliable information that the appellant was the girl who had participated in the attack on the pedestrian, but the garda had no admissible evidence to that effect - The garda brought the appellant to a garda station where she was charged; she was then brought to a sitting of the Children's Court where a minor was due to appear to answer charges arising from the assault and where the appellant was identified by the pedestrian as the girl who had attacked him - The garda who arrested the appellant stated that he had done so for the purpose of bringing her before the District Court as soon as practicable and also for the purpose of bringing her to a place where the pedestrian would be so that he would have an opportunity to see whether he could identify the appellant as one of his attackers - The appellant appealed against her convictions - Held, in allowing the appeal, that the purpose of the arrest had been unlawful - (1987/50 - C.C.A. - 25/7/88) - 3 Frewen 138

|The People v. Donaghy|

1 Judgment of the Court delivered the 25th day of July1988by McCarthy J.

2 On Sunday the 5th October 1986, shortly after 2 a.m., Vincent Kavanagh, while walking down Griffith Avenue Extension in the City of Dublin, was engaged in conversation by a group of three young man and a girl who walked with him for a few minutes down the road. They then assaulted and robbed him: the girl took a chain off his neck and spat in his fact, this appeal concerns the conviction of Yvonne Donaghy, whom Mr. Kavanagh subsequently identified as the girl who has assaulted and robbed him. After a trial in the Dublin Circuit Court she was convicted on the 3rd April 1987 on counts of robbery and assault, for which she was sentence so two years imprisonment. On application to this Court on the 11th May 1987 she was granted...