DPP v Flaherty

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judge: Clarke C.J.,Irvine J.,Baker J.
• Judgment Date: 14 February 2020
• Neutral Citation: [2020] IESCDET 14
• Date: 14 February 2020
• Docket Number: S:AP:IE:2019:000208 Bill No. CCDP0077/2016

THE PEOPLE AT THE SUIT OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

AND

PAUL FLAHERTY

APPLICANT

[2020] IESCDET 14

Clarke C.J.

Irvine J.

Baker J.

S:AP:IE:2019:000208

2018 No. 89

Bill No. CCDP0077/2016

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: 31st July, 2019 and 18th October, 2019

DATE OF ORDER: 24th October, 2019

DATE OF PERFECTION OF ORDER: 20th November, 2019

THE APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL WAS MADE ON 22ND NOVEMBER, 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 This is the application of Paul Flaherty (“the applicant”) 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 24 October 2019 following a written judgment on 31 July 2019, The People (DPP) v. Flaherty [2019] IECA 224, and an ex tempore judgment of 18 October 2019 (Birmingham P., McCarthy J., Kennedy J.) which dismissed his appeal against a conviction for sexual assault and the imposition of a sentence of two and a half years, reduced from the five-year term imposed by the High Court.

5 The applicant was charged with four counts of rape, sexual assault and the making of threats to kill the female complainant. He was convicted on one charge only, that of sexual assault, the jury having acquitted on the charges of oral rape and threats to kill and having disagreed on the charge of vaginal rape.

6 The applicant, in reliance on The People (DPP) v. M. R. [2009] IECCA 87, [2010] 1 IR 577, argued that the conviction on one charge was bad for uncertainty, as the acts upon which the verdict of the jury was based could not be identified, and as the...