People (Attorney-General) v Galvin

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 02 February 1964
• Date: 02 February 1964
• Court: Court of Criminal Appeal

(C.C.A.)

People (Attorney-General)

and

Galvin

Statements by accused in answer to questions by police officer - Discretion of trial judge to exclude - Inducement - Duration of effect - Subsequent statements to persons not in authority - Connection between first and subsequent stalements.

The applicant was questioned persistently by several Gardai in a Garda Station from 8.50 p.m. on the 8th April, 1961, until about 12.30 a.m. on the following morning. At about 12.15 a.m. he made an incriminatory statement to a Garda officer and was then cautioned for the first time but made other such statements. He was cautioned again at 1.30 a.m. At 2.40 a.m. he made an incriminatory statement to his father at the Garda Station and was then reminded that he had been cautioned; he went to sleep in the Garda Station at 4 a.m. and slept until 10 a.m. At 11.05 a.m. he made a further incriminatory statement to his father in the Garda Station and during the evening of the 9th April, after he had been remanded in custody on a charge of murder he made another such statement to a Garda officer. The applicant was found guilty of murder. The Court of Criminal Appeal invited counsel to argue, which he did, that a remark, "You should not be keeping us here all night—tell the truth and be finished with it" (which was made to the accused by a Garda officer at 12.10 a.m., near the end of the questioning) amounted to an inducement. Held by the Court of Criminal Appeal—1, that the remark made to the applicant at 12.10 a.m. by the Garda officer did not constitute an inducement; 2, that, even if such remark did constitute an inducement, its effect upon the mind of the accused was spent at 2.40 a.m. on the...