Court of Appeal declares Osgur Breatnach’s Sallins robbery conviction a miscarriage of justice

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

The Court of Appeal has certified Osgur Breatnach’s conviction for the 1976 Sallins mail train robbery as a miscarriage of justice. The court said the Director of Public Prosecutions did not dispute that Breatnach had “no hand, act or part” in the robbery, and found that the threshold for granting the certificate had been met.

The court accepted evidence from John Fitzpatrick as a newly discovered fact and awarded Breatnach his legal costs. Breatnach was convicted in 1978 and served 18 months of a 12-year sentence before his conviction was quashed in 1980 because the court was not satisfied his statement was voluntary.

After the ruling, Breatnach called for an independent public inquiry into the actions of the State and its agents, saying the case remained unresolved.