The High Court refused to direct an inquiry into Kenneth Lyons’s detention at the Midlands Prison, finding that the warrants for attempted robbery were lawful.
In a judgment delivered on 7 April 2017, Mr Justice Eagar considered an application under Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution. Lyons argued in an affidavit that the warrants referred to attempted robbery contrary to common law, and that the common-law offence of robbery had been abolished by the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
The judgment records two warrants. The first followed a conviction dated 29 November 2016 for attempting to rob D.L. It imposed a three-year prison sentence running from 10 March 2017. The second warrant related to a sentence imposed on 10 March 2017 for attempted robbery of D.L. It imposed five years and six months, to begin when the three-year sentence expired. The final four years of the combined eight-and-a-half-year sentences were suspended on terms entered in court that day.
The judge noted that section 3(2) of the 2001 Act abolished several common-law offences, including robbery. But the warrants alleged attempted robbery, not robbery. The judgment described attempt as an inchoate common-law offence and said the abolition of robbery did not affect the offence of attempting to rob. It concluded that the warrants were “perfectly legal.”
The court therefore refused the requested inquiry into the grounds of Lyons’s detention. The ruling addressed the legality of detention under these warrants; it did not direct an inquiry.