Caolan Smyth loses appeal over attempted murder phone evidence

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

Caolan Smyth lost his Supreme Court appeal over the use of phone data in his attempted murder conviction, in a judgment reported on 17 June 2024.

The court ruled that the phone metadata was properly admitted as evidence against Smyth, who is serving a 20-year sentence for shooting James Gately five times in Dublin on 10 May 2017.

The Supreme Court found that the community interest in deciding the case on its merits weighed decisively in favour of admitting the evidence. The judgment concerned the phone data used to secure convictions against Smyth and Gary McAreavey; McAreavey’s separate conviction was quashed on another issue.