Judgment reserved on bid to dismiss Peter Pringle damages claim

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

The High Court reserved judgment on 2 February 2018 on the State’s application to dismiss a damages claim brought by Peter Pringle. Ms Justice Carmel Stewart also reserved judgment on his separate application for documents concerning DNA analysis, after submissions from both parties.

The State sought to have the damages claim, initiated in the mid-1990s, dismissed on grounds including inordinate delay. Mr Pringle denied delay on his part and claimed any delay had been caused by the State.

Mr Pringle claimed the State was negligent and breached his constitutional rights because crucial evidence was not disclosed before his trial. The non-jury Special Criminal Court had convicted him of murdering gardaí John Morley and Henry Byrne during a bank robbery in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, in July 1980.

He was originally sentenced to death; the sentence was later commuted to 40 years’ imprisonment. He served 14 years and 10 months before the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction as unsafe and unsatisfactory in 1995.

His discovery application concerned a 2002 analysis by the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham of hair from a car used in the robbery and a voluntary blood sample he gave in 1994. In 2003, the State told his lawyers that a match provided “strong support” for the proposition that the hair originated from him. Mr Pringle believed the DNA report was a means to stop his damages claim. His lawyers sought the analysis paperwork, which had not been provided; the State denied his claims about the report and opposed discovery.