Gardaí broke law by accessing mobile phone data, Lunney trial told

Date11 June 2021
Published date11 June 2021
Michael O'Higgins SC told the Special Criminal Court that despite a finding by the Court of Justice of the European Union that mass retention of phone data is a serious breach of citizens' privacy rights, the Government has done nothing.

"That has left another arm of the executive, law enforcement, breaking the law repeatedly, for years and years and years," he said.

Responding, Sean Guerin SC for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the mass collection of data is "not a breach of anything". It is, he said, an interference with privacy rights which is permitted in certain circumstances such as to "shed light on serious crime."

He said EU directives have stated that data retention is a "valuable tool" and an appropriate method of criminal investigation.

The court has heard that following rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Irish courts, gardaí can no longer access mobile phone data through the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011.

Gardaí investigating Mr Lunney's abduction and assault therefore used search warrants to obtain call data records.

Mr O'Higgins said the material gardai uncovered should be ruled inadmissible because it was unlawfully obtained. Lawyers for the three other accused have adopted Mr O'Higgins' arguments.

A 40-year-old man who cannot be named by order of the court; Alan O'Brien (40), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, Dublin 3; Darren Redmond (27), from Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin 3; and Luke O'Reilly (67), with an address at Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan have all pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan on September 17th, 2019.

Mr Lunney has told the court that he was bundled into the boot of a car near his home and driven to a container where he was threatened and told to resign as a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings.

His abductors stripped him to his boxer shorts, doused him in bleach, broke his leg with two blows of a wooden bat, beat him on the ground, cut his face and scored the letters QIH into his chest. They left him on a country road at Drumcoghill in Co Cavan where he was discovered by a man driving a tractor.

Mr O'Higgins, for the unnamed accused, said the mobile phone data was extracted from a database in a way that the European court has said is not permitted. He said that if the mass retention of data is unlawful then the manner in which gardaí accessed that data cannot be lawful.

'Unprece...

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