DPP v Flaherty

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Clarke C.J.,Irvine J.,Baker J.
• Judgment Date: 14 February 2020
• Neutral Citation: [2020] IESCDET 15
• Date: 14 February 2020
• Court: Supreme Court
• Docket Number: S:AP:IE:2019:000118 Bill No. SCC006/2010

THE PEOPLE AT THE SUIT OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

AND

PHILIP MCKEVITT

[2020] IESCDET 15

Clarke C.J.

Irvine J.

Baker J.

S:AP:IE:2019:000118

2017 No. 63

Bill No. SCC006/2010

THE SUPREME COURT

DETERMINATION

APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL TO WHICH ARTICLE 34.5.3° OF THE CONSTITUTION APPLIES

RESULT: The Court does not grant leave to the applicant to appeal to this Court from the Court of Appeal.

REASONS GIVEN:

ORDER SOUGHT TO BE APPEALED

COURT: Court of Appeal

DATE OF JUDGMENT OR RULING: 20th June, 2018

DATE OF ORDER: 25th June, 2018

DATE OF PERFECTION OF ORDER: 21st May, 2019

THE APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL WAS MADE ON 12TH JUNE, 2019 AND WAS IN TIME.

General Considerations

1 The general principles applied by this Court in determining whether to grant or refuse leave to appeal having regard to the criteria incorporated into the Constitution as a result of the Thirty-third Amendment have now been considered in a large number of determinations and are fully addressed in both a determination issued by a panel consisting of all of the members of this Court in B. S. v. Director of Public Prosecutions [2017] IESCDET 134 and in a unanimous judgment of a full Court delivered by O'Donnell J. in Quinn Insurance Ltd. v. PricewaterhouseCoopers [2017] IESC 73, [2017] 3 IR 812. It follows that it is unnecessary to revisit the new constitutional architecture for the purposes of this determination.

2 Furthermore, the application for leave filed and the respondent's notice are published along with this determination (subject only to any redaction required by law) and it is therefore unnecessary to set out the position of the parties.

3 Any ruling in a determination concerns whether the facts and legal issues meet the constitutional criteria identified above, is particular to that application, and is final and conclusive only to that extent and as between the parties.

The Application

4 The application is for leave to appeal to this Court pursuant to the provisions of Article 34.5.3° of the Constitution from the order of the Court of Appeal of 25 June 2018 following a written judgment (Birmingham P., Mahon and Edwards JJ.) of 20 June 2018, The People (DPP) v. McKevitt [2018] IECA 188, in which the Court dismissed the applicant's appeal against a conviction by the Special Criminal Court for possession of an explosive substance contrary to s. 4 of the Explosive Substances Act 1883, as amended, in an ex tempore ruling of 21 December 2016 (Kennedy J., Judge Ní Chúlacháin and Judge Faughnan).

5 The applicant was convicted following his retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal in an ex tempore judgment, The People (DPP) v. Murphy [2015] IECA 300 (Birmingham P., Sheehan and Edwards JJ.), which quashed the previous convictions of the applicant and his co-accused on the ground that the Special Criminal Court had refused to allow them to address it on the significance of the decision of the Supreme Court in Damache v. DPP [2012] IESC 11, [2012] 2 IR 266, which was delivered after the evidence had concluded.

6 The evidence at trial arose from a Garda surveillance operation which led to the Gardai entering a shed that was believed to be, and in the event turned out to be, a major IRA bomb factory, located on the lands of...