The High Court has refused to stop the prosecution of an anonymised applicant charged with rape and oral rape, finding no culpable prosecutorial delay in the investigation and decision to prosecute.
Mr Justice Max Barrett delivered the judgment on 10 April 2018. The alleged offences arose from the same series of events in March 2016. The applicant and complainant knew each other before the alleged events and were both children at the time. The applicant was one month short of his 17th birthday and turned 18 in April 2017.
The applicant sought an order prohibiting his trial in the Central Criminal Court, an injunction as an alternative, and a declaration that the delay breached his constitutional rights. He argued that delays meant he would be tried after turning 18 and would lose mandatory protections available under the Children Act 2001 to a person tried before that age.
The judge rejected the claim that the investigation had stalled after May 2016. He said the State’s timeline did not show culpable delay. Gardaí had repeatedly chased forensic reports, and the longer first forensic examination was properly explained as more comprehensive than the later comparative test. The court also accepted that the investigation took longer because the applicant exercised his right to silence during questioning, while making clear that he was entitled to do so.
The judgment said the alleged charges were very serious and that, given the necessary investigation, consideration of the Juvenile Diversion Programme and prosecution decision, there was no prospect of the case coming to trial before the applicant turned 18. Even assuming some culpable delay lasting a few months, the judge said it would not outweigh the public interest in the charges proceeding. He accepted that losing the statutory protections could amount to prejudice if caused by culpable delay, but found no such delay here and no prejudice sufficient to stop the prosecution.
The applicant had declined the Juvenile Diversion Programme in October 2016. The timeline records that he was charged on 10 May 2017. The court declined all the reliefs sought. It did not determine the criminal charges or make findings on the allegations; the prosecution remained pending before the Central Criminal Court.