The High Court has ordered the surrender of a man to the United Kingdom for prosecution on six alleged offences, dismissing his objections to a European arrest warrant.
In a judgment delivered on 12 January 2021, Mr Justice Paul Burns found the warrant contained sufficient particulars and that the offences met the minimum gravity requirements. The court said the alleged conduct corresponded to burglary and theft offences under Irish law. Correspondence was not contested.
The man, named in the judgment as John Richard McDonagh, objected that the warrant lacked details about the alleged offences and his involvement. He also argued that surrender was barred because of the UK’s departure from the European Union, and that delay and his family circumstances made surrender an unjustified interference with his private and family life.
The judgment records that he denied the charges and said his correct name was simply Richard McDonagh. He said he had lived openly in Dundalk for six years, apart from two periods in custody, with his wife and three daughters, one of them a minor.
The court rejected the challenge to the warrant’s penalty information, finding the issuing authority had stated the maximum penalties: 14 years for burglary and 10 years for theft. It also found that the warrant set out dates, locations and circumstances of each alleged offence and described an alleged joint enterprise.
On family life and delay, the judge found no unconscionable or culpable delay and no exceptional personal or family circumstances sufficient to justify refusing surrender. The alleged offences were said to have occurred in 2014 and 2015; the warrant was issued on 10 July 2020 and the man was arrested in Ireland on 7 December 2020.
The court also dismissed the argument that the UK’s departure from the EU created a real risk to the man’s fundamental rights. It found he had provided no evidence capable of establishing reasonable grounds to believe his rights would likely be breached after surrender.
The judgment said the UK remained designated for the purposes of Ireland’s European Arrest Warrant Act in this case because the warrant was issued by a UK judicial authority and the man was arrested before 11pm on 31 December 2020. The court concluded that the statutory conditions were met and made an order under section 16(1) of the Act for his surrender. The order concerns surrender for prosecution; the judgment does not determine guilt on the six offences.