Courts / Dublin / Report
"No deal Brexit" does not amount to exceptional legal point, judge says
Summary
In a High Court decision on 12 March 2019, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly refused Declan "Whacker" Duffy's application to appeal his extradition to Northern Ireland, ruling that the issue of a "no‑deal Brexit" does not constitute a point of law of exceptional public importance. Duffy, aged 44, had been serving a life sentence for the 1992 murder of Sergeant Michael Newman and had been released on licence in March 2013. He was re‑arrested in December 2015 and sentenced in 2016 to six years for false imprisonment. The court found no evidence supporting the defence's claims that Brexit or the Good Friday Agreement posed a risk to the legal system. Consequently, the judge declined to grant an appeal, affirming the extradition order. The decision emphasised that the extradition case remained a routine legal matter rather than one of exceptional public significance.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: "No deal Brexit" does not amount to exceptional legal point, judge says. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- March 2013 Incident
- December 5, 2015 Incident
- June 9th, 2015 Incident
- June 6, 2016 Incident
- June 2020 Hearing Or Sentence
- 2019-03-12 Publication
Case subjects
Applicant
Outcome: Duffy's barrister Anthony Hanrahan BL had previously argued that his client had already served "what was deemed by the Sentence Review Commissioner to be an appropriate sentence" and that sending him back to serve the full sentence would be a "double punishment".
Places mentioned
- High Court
- Special Criminal Court
- Hannover Street
Topics
Related court reports
- Supervisor in 'sophisticated' drug operation jailed for ten years
- 'Senseless and violent': robbers who went on to reoffend despite been given chance by judge are jailed
- Driver charged with causing death of cyclist Gretchen Price
- Man gets eight years for killing sister's partner
- Woman claimed more than €25k in allowances for dead son
- Stabbing victim's mother tells court 'there will always be a stain' on her heart
If a fact, identity, locality or legal outcome needs review, email the newsroom with this report's details prefilled.
Email a correction request