State (Shannon) v O hUadhaigh

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1975
• Date: 01 January 1975
• Docket Number: [1971 No. 348 SS.]
• Court: Supreme Court

The State (Shannon) v. O hUadhaigh

The State (at the Prosecution of Christopher Shannon)

and

Robert O hUadhaigh and Others

[1971 No. 348 SS.]

Supreme Court

Criminal law - Procedure - Complaint - Indictable offence - Preliminary examination in District Court - Book of evidence served on accused before he had been charged - Return for trial quashed on certiorari - Criminal Procedure Act, 1967 (No. 12), ss. 5, 6, 8.

On the 7th June, 1971, an accused was charged in the District Court with having committed offences under ss. 2 and 33 of the Larceny Act, 1916, and he was remanded on bail. On the 26th July the accused was served with documents including a statement that he was charged with offences under ss. 14 and 33 of the Act of 1916 in relation to the same incident. On the 29th July the accused, while still on bail, was brought to a police station where the new charges were entered on a charge sheet; later on the same day he was brought before the District Court on which occasion the former charges were struck out, the new charges were read to the accused and the court made an order sending him forward to the Circuit Court for trial. On appeal by the accused from an order of the High Court which discharged a conditional order of certiorari setting aside the order of the District Court it was

Held by the Supreme Court (FitzGerald C.J., Walsh and Budd JJ.), in allowing the appeal and in making absolute the conditional order, 1, that a valid complaint had been made in relation to the new charges when the District Justice had read them to the accused.

2. That the documents to be served on "the accused" pursuant to s. 6, sub-s. 1, of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967 (which include a statement of the charges against him) must be served after the relevant complaint is made because, until then, no person is accused of the charges made in the complaint.

Appeal from the High Court.

On the 11th October, 1971, the prosecutor obtained from the High Court (Butler J.) a conditional order of certiorari quashing an order made by District Justice Ó hUadhaigh ó huadhaigh on the 29th July, 1971, by which he sent the prosecutor forward to the Circuit Court for trial pursuant to s. 8 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967. The conditional order was served on the District Justice, Detective Garda Maguire and the Attorney General, and they showed cause. On the 18th November, 1971, the prosecutor applied to the High Court (O'Keeffe P.) for an absolute order, notwithstanding the cause shown by the respondents. The prosecutor's motion was heard on the 19th and 21st April and on the 5th May, 1972, when judgment was reserved. On the 29th July, 1972, O'Keeffe P. delivered judgment in which he allowed the cause shown by the respondents and discharged the conditional order. The prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court from the judgment and order of the High Court; the appeal was heard on the 11th November, 1973, and reserved judgments were delivered in the Supreme Court on the 5th April, 1974.

Section 5 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967, the opening section of Part II of the Act, provides as...