Court reserves judgment on Michael Collins’s appeal over self-representation

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

The Court of Appeal reserved judgment on Michael Collins’s appeal against his conviction for dangerous driving causing the death of Jillian Thornton. At the hearing on 19 May 2023, his lawyers argued that he should not have been allowed to represent himself at trial.

Collins pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing Thornton’s death, charges of endangerment, 12 charges of dangerous driving and driving under the influence of an intoxicant. The verdict proceedings were reported on 29 March 2019.

A jury at Trim Circuit Court found him guilty of all the offences. The fatal crash occurred on 27 May 2016 at Waterside Great, Co Meath. Judge Martina Baxter presided over the trial. Collins was jailed for 14 years in July 2019.

Thornton, 20, was a back-seat passenger in Collins’s car. The trial heard that the collision followed a garda pursuit after the car failed to stop. Gardaí gave evidence that Collins drove at speed on the wrong side of the road without lights and nearly collided with other vehicles.

Collins told the jury his life was under threat and he believed he was being followed by would-be assassins. A detective told the trial he had warned Collins weeks earlier that his life was under threat. Collins also claimed his car had been rammed into the other vehicle; the court heard that later investigations found no evidence to support that claim.

At the appeal hearing, Michael Lynn SC argued that Collins had been incapable of running a coherent defence. Carl Hanahoe BL, for the State, argued that Collins had the right to represent himself and that there was no evidence he lacked capacity to make that decision. Mr Justice George Birmingham said the court would reserve judgment.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.