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Gardaí may change investigative practices following recent telephone records ruling, court told

Summary

In a February 2015 hearing, a court discussed how Garda detectives might revise investigative methods following a ruling that barred prosecutors from using telephone records in a criminal trial. The case involved Thomas Hunt, 40, who was charged in December with withholding information related to the fatal shooting of Alan Ryan on 3 September 2012. Hunt had allegedly purchased a car that later served as the getaway vehicle in Ryan's murder. He was arrested in October and pleaded not guilty to withholding information between 3 September and 23 October 2012. The State withdrew the charges after Judge Catherine Murphy ruled that telephone records stored on a mainframe computer could not be relied upon because there was no evidence the computer was operating correctly at the relevant time. The court heard that the State's case was that Hunt owned a mobile phone used to buy the car.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Gardaí may change investigative practices following recent telephone records ruling, court told. Charges or matters: withholding information, on dates between September 3 and October 23, 2012, which might have been of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of a person for a serious offence, the murder of Alan Ryan. Procedural stage: charge_or_pretrial

When:

• September 3 2012 Incident
• September 3 Incident
• October 23, 2012 Incident
• 2015-02-03 Publication

Why: The State withdrew charges in the case after Judge Catherine Murphy ruled that telephone records held on a mainframe computer could not be relied on as evidence because there was no evidence that the computer was operating correctly at the relevant time. CNI source report

Case subjects

Places mentioned

Topics

Stage Charge Or Pretrial Violent Crime

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Read the original CNI report