The Court of Appeal has ruled that surrendering Anthony Craig and Anthony Balmer to the United Kingdom to serve the balance of their life sentences would not breach the Irish Constitution or be prohibited by the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The appeals concerned whether returning the men to UK custody after they had served the tariff periods of their sentences would expose them to constitutionally impermissible detention solely to prevent future offending. The court heard the appeals together because they raised the same certified question of exceptional importance.
Craig was convicted of murder in 1974 and received a mandatory life sentence with a 15-year tariff. He had served about 28 years when he escaped from an open prison in 2002. The UK sought his surrender both to return him to prison to continue serving his sentence and to prosecute him for the alleged offence of escape. The Court of Appeal noted that an earlier order for surrender for the escape prosecution was not affected by the appeal before it.
Balmer was convicted of murder in 1984 and received a mandatory life sentence. His tariff was initially 12 years and was later increased to 15 years. After about 27 years in prison, he was released on licence in 2011. The licence was revoked in 2012 on grounds marked as an alleged further offence and poor behaviour. The notice gave no further details of those grounds. He came to Ireland after his release.
The men argued that, because their tariffs had been served, surrender would lead to indefinite detention for preventative purposes, contrary to their constitutional right to liberty. The Minister submitted that their sentences remained mandatory life sentences and that the UK’s risk-based release arrangements did not change their legal nature.
The Court of Appeal said the relevant question was how the UK sentence-management regime operated in substance, rather than the label “preventative detention” used in material supplied by the issuing authorities. It distinguished the indeterminate sentence for public protection considered in an earlier case from a mandatory life sentence imposed for murder. The court said a risk assessment when considering release on licence did not make continued detention under a valid life sentence constitutionally impermissible.
The court answered the certified question by finding that surrendering the appellants to serve the balance of their life sentences would not contravene the Constitution, including Article 40.4, and would not be prohibited by section 37(1)(b) of the 2003 Act. It found no error in the High Court’s reasoning on Craig and reached the same conclusion for Balmer despite the factual differences. The ruling addressed the certified constitutional question; it did not determine the allegations cited in Balmer’s recall notice.