Anthony Craig and Michael Anthony Balmer lose extradition appeals

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Anthony Craig and Michael Anthony Balmer lost their appeals against extradition to the UK at the Court of Appeal on 21 May 2015. The High Court had ordered their surrender to complete life sentences for murder.

Both men argued they faced immediate preventative detention, having served the punitive parts of their sentences. Patrick McGrath SC, counsel for Michael Anthony Balmer, submitted that continued detention based on public risk breached Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution.

Mr Justice Michael Peart found no error in principle in the surrender orders and said surrender would not contravene the Constitution. Mr Justice Alan Mahon agreed. Dissenting, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan considered surrender unconstitutional because the British life-sentence regime provided for preventative detention, making surrender contrary to section 37(1)(b) of the European Arrest Warrant Act.

The court stayed surrender until 10 June. If the men applied to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal, the stay would continue pending determination of the application. Mr Justice Michael Peart said Anthony Craig must present himself at a Garda station within 48 hours of a negative determination or refusal.

Anthony Craig was serving life for murdering a man in a Blackburn park on 3 November 1973. After serving 28 years, he escaped in 2002, came to Ireland and was arrested on 14 February 2013. His surrender warrant covered murder and escaping from prison; no appeal was sought over the escape offence.

Michael Anthony Balmer was sentenced to life in 1984 for attacking and killing a woman in her Devon home on 28 July 1983. He served 27 years before coming to Ireland in 2012 following conditional release on licence, subject to the risk he posed to the public.

His licence was revoked on 19 March 2012, when he was living in Cork, where he was subsequently arrested. The stated reasons were an alleged offence and poor behaviour. Patrick McGrath SC said Michael Anthony Balmer had not received detailed information explaining the revocation.