The High Court has refused to stop Garda member Liam Donnelly’s prosecution for perjury arising from evidence he gave during the trial of Omagh bombing suspect Colm Murphy.
The perjury allegation relates to interview notes from February 1999, when Donnelly and another Garda interviewed Murphy at Monaghan Garda Station. During Murphy’s later Special Criminal Court trial, it was alleged that a line linking Murphy’s wife to a woman associated with a suspected Real IRA member had been inserted into the notes and later removed.
Donnelly denied altering the notes. In November 2001, however, the Special Criminal Court ruled the interview notes inadmissible and found that Donnelly had inserted false information and lied when denying that the notes had been falsified.
A Garda investigation into possible perjury began after Murphy’s trial concluded in January 2002. Donnelly was ultimately charged in January 2005, shortly after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Murphy’s conviction.
Donnelly sought to stop his own trial on two grounds. First, he argued that the original Electro Static Detection Apparatus, or ESDA, trace used in Murphy’s trial had since been lost and that his expert could therefore not examine it. Second, he relied on the delay between the 2001 ruling and his 2005 charge.
Mr Justice O’Neill rejected both arguments. The original trace had been a defence exhibit in Murphy’s case and was lost while in court custody, not through any failure by Gardaí or prosecutors to preserve evidence.
The court also found no demonstrated prejudice to Donnelly’s defence. Other ESDA traces remained available and any dispute over whether a photocopy of the missing trace could be admitted was a matter for the trial judge.
On delay, the court held that Donnelly had waited about ten months before seeking judicial review despite knowing of the issue from January 2005. No explanation for that delay was provided.
The application for prohibition was therefore refused, leaving the perjury trial to proceed.