DPP v Quilligan (No. 2)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1989
• Date: 01 January 1989
• Docket Number: [S.C. No. 367 of 1985]
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

People (D.P.P.)

and

Quilligan (No. 2)

- Jurisdiction -Appeal against acquittal - Whether Supreme Court has ancillary jurisdiction to order retrial after appeal by prosecution against acquittal -Criminal Procedure Act, 1967 (No. 12) - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1962 (S.I. No. 72), O. 58, r. 9 - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986 (S.I. No. 15), O. 87. rr. 2, 9, 11 - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Art. 34.4.3.

Order 58 of the Rules of the Superior Courts, 1962, governed appeals to the Supreme Court from the High Court, until new rules of court were made in 1986. The Rules of 1962 contained no specific provisions dealing with appeals from the Central Criminal Court (the High Court exercising its criminal jurisdiction), as the only form of appeal from that court recognised at the time the Rules were made was to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Rule 9 of O. 58 contained a general provision that: "if, upon the hearing of an appeal, it shall appear to the Supreme Court that a new trial ought to be had, it may order that the judgment or order be set aside and that a new trial be had." In 1975 the Supreme Court held that it had jurisdiction under Article 34 of the Constitution to hear an appeal brought by a person who had been convicted before the Central Criminal Court. In 1982 it held that its appellate jurisdiction included the right to entertain an appeal by the prosecution against a verdict of not guilty recorded in the Central Criminal Court, where such verdict was recorded pursuant to a direction by the trial judge. The question whether a retrial could be ordered by the Supreme Court after it had set aside a not guiulty verdict was not decided. New rules of court were introduced in 1986. Order 87 of the Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986, governs appeals from the Central Criminal Court to the Supreme Court. Rule 1 of O. 87 provides that a notice of appeal may include "an application to set aside the verdict and finding of a jury, or to direct a new trial." By r. 9: "if, upon the hearing of an appeal, it shall appear to the Supreme Court that a new trial ought to be had, it may order that the judgment or order be set aside and that a new trial be had." In 1984 the respondents were charged with murder and returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court. After the trial judge had ruled inadmissible certain statements made by the respondents while in Garda custody, he directed the jury to find them not guilty of the charges against them. The...