Declan Tynan conviction quashed over violent disorder

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

Declan Tynan’s violent disorder conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on 24 April 2018. He had spent 11 months in prison.

Tynan had maintained his innocence over the alleged violent disorder at Ladbrokes bookmakers in Killinarden, Tallaght, on 13 December 2012. The prosecution’s case was that he was one of three men who entered the bookmakers and attacked a customer. One attacker repeatedly stabbed the man with a short blade, and the group turned on his brother when he intervened.

A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found Tynan guilty. On 13 January 2017, Judge Patricia Ryan sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment, with the final year suspended. His barrister Eoghan Cole BL described it as a one-witness case, saying the only evidence against him was a garda’s purported visual identification from CCTV.

Tynan’s initial appeal, which focused on visual identification, was dismissed and his conviction affirmed. His senior counsel Michael O’Higgins argued that no record had been kept of the circumstances in which the garda viewed the footage. Dismissing that appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the court was not persuaded by the recognition argument.

Months later, Mr O’Higgins told the Court of Appeal that Luke Hickey had provided a statement claiming he was the third person involved in the attack. Tynan was granted bail pending an investigation, and the court heard that UK experts considered the visual identification.

The DPP did not oppose the application to quash the conviction, but counsel Michael Delaney SC said the Director was making no factual concessions. Mr Justice Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Hedigan, ordered the conviction quashed, with liberty to apply later for a declaration that it was a miscarriage of justice.