The Court of Appeal has dismissed Joseph Heffernan’s appeal against his conviction for the murder of Eoin Ryan, rejecting challenges to the trial judge’s directions on diminished responsibility and the admission of two text messages sent from the deceased’s phone.
The judgment, delivered on 21 December 2015 by Mr Justice Edwards, records that Heffernan’s nine-day trial took place in the Central Criminal Court. It was common ground at trial that he unlawfully caused Mr Ryan’s death on 7 June 2011 in Cappabeg, Barefield, Ennis. The dispute was whether Heffernan intended to kill or cause serious injury, or whether his responsibility was substantially diminished by a mental disorder, making him guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.
The main appeal ground concerned the jury directions on diminished responsibility under section 6 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006. The trial judge told jurors that the defence had to prove diminished responsibility on the balance of probabilities. Heffernan argued that the defence should bear only an evidential burden, leaving the prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The Court of Appeal held that section 6 places a legal burden on the defence to establish diminished responsibility on the balance of probabilities. It said that interpretation was consistent with the statutory scheme and its connection to the insanity defence. The court therefore found no basis to uphold this ground of appeal.
The second ground challenged the admission of two text messages sent from Mr Ryan’s phone in the early hours of the morning he died. The trial judge had admitted them as evidence capable of falling within the res gestae exception to the hearsay rule, and concluded they were more probative than prejudicial. The Court of Appeal found a strong basis in the evidence for inferring that Mr Ryan had sent the messages and said the trial judge was entitled to admit them. It declined to interfere with that discretionary ruling.
The jury had returned an 11-to-1 majority verdict of guilty of murder. The appeal court dismissed the appeal against conviction. The judgment records no change to that conviction and does not determine any sentence appeal.