The Court of Appeal has dismissed Maurice Power’s appeal against his conviction for the murder of Shane Rossiter, finding that the conviction was safe and the trial satisfactory.
Power was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in June 2014, by a 10-to-one majority, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed on 17 grounds. The Court of Appeal judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 24 April 2018, rejected every ground.
Rossiter was shot twice at a house party in Golden, Co Tipperary, in the early hours of 17 October 2012. The appeal judgment recounts that Power confessed during interviews while detained in December 2012. He had also voluntarily attended Clonmel Garda station in October 2012 and made a statement in an interview with his solicitor present.
Among the issues appealed were the admission of evidence about a previous stabbing involving the two men, a vehicle registration document, data extracted from Rossiter’s phone, and Power’s interview statements. The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s decisions on those matters. It found the earlier stabbing relevant background and considered the cannabis-related evidence necessary to explain why Power went to the scene.
The court held that the statutory rules requiring electronic recording of certain Garda interviews did not apply to Power’s October interview because he was not detained under one of the specified legal powers. It also found no basis to exclude his December interviews, concluding that the trial judge was entitled to accept the evidence supporting their voluntariness. The court said challenges to the third extension of his detention could not be made in the manner attempted during the trial; the extension had been authorised by a District Court warrant that had not been set aside.
The appeal also challenged the jury directions on corroboration. The Court of Appeal said the trial judge’s wording was unorthodox and not entirely correct, but did not harm Power because it placed a more demanding burden on the prosecution. It held that independent evidence was capable of corroborating material parts of the confession, while the jury had to decide whether it did so.
The judgment records that the jury found Power guilty and that he received a life sentence. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal against conviction; it did not make a new finding of guilt or issue a new sentence.