Courts / Dublin / Report

Supreme Court upholds miscarriage of justice finding in case of mentally ill man jailed for murdering infant son

Date
2022-05-30

Stage
Appeal

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

The Supreme Court upheld a finding that the 2003 murder conviction of Somali‑born Yusuf Ali Abdi was a miscarriage of justice. Abdi, who had spent 16 years in prison, was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a retrial in 2019 after new psychiatric evidence showed he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing of his 20‑month‑old son, Nathan. The Court of Appeal had quashed the original conviction and ordered the retrial, which resulted in an acquittal. The Supreme Court, hearing an appeal from the Director of Public Prosecutions, dismissed the appeal and confirmed that Abdi was entitled to a Section 9 certificate for compensation. The decision clarified the legal test for a miscarriage of justice and the role of insanity in criminal liability. The ruling reaffirmed the earlier judgments of the Central Criminal Court and the Court of Appeal.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Supreme Court upholds miscarriage of justice finding in case of mentally ill man jailed for murdering infant son. Charges or matters: murdering his 20-month-old son Nathan Barak Andrew Ali at The Elms, College Road, Clane, Co Kildare on April 17, 2001 following a trial at the Central Criminal Court in 2003. Procedural stage: appeal. Findings: Convicted

When:

April 17, 2001 Hearing Or Sentence
February 2019 Hearing Or Sentence
May 1998 Other
January 1999 Other
30 August 1999 Incident
November 1999 Hearing Or Sentence
2022-05-30 Publication

Why: " Mr Justice Charleton said that the ruling of the trial judge in the lower court found that the acquittal of the accused in this case met the test in Section 9 of the 1993 Act because of the special finding of insanity. CNI source report

Case subjects

Yusuf Ali Abdi

Appellant

Charges: murdering his 20-month-old son Nathan Barak Andrew Ali at The Elms, College Road, Clane, Co Kildare on April 17, 2001 following a trial at the Central Criminal Court in 2003 (Proven)

Finding: Convicted

Outcome: Convicted; His lawyers argued that Mr Abdi's medical condition in the years after his sentence and symptoms and signs he exhibited over years which, when his overall psychiatric history was considered, led to his diagnosis being changed from one of depression and non-psychotic paranoid state to one of paranoid schizophrenia.