The High Court quashed a warrant directing Michael Cash to serve a third prison sentence and ordered his immediate, unconditional release, finding the warrant too unclear to lawfully detain him.
The judicial review concerned three sentences imposed at Tallaght District Court on 9 December 2013. Each included a suspended portion, and the second and third were ordered to run consecutively. The court dealt only with the third warrant: the first two sentences had been served, and the District Court orders themselves were not before the High Court.
The third warrant specified 12 months’ imprisonment, with the final three months suspended, to begin on the “legal expiration” of a three-month sentence imposed for an earlier offence. That earlier sentence also had a suspended portion. The applicant argued that combining partly suspended and consecutive sentences made the warrants uncertain and legally ineffective. The respondents maintained that the sentences and warrants were valid and that the prison governor could interpret and apply them.
Justice Baker said the Irish statutory scheme did not specify how to apply consecutive sentences where earlier sentences were wholly or partly suspended. The third warrant did not say that its term would begin when the custodial part of the previous sentence ended. As a result, its start date could depend on how the suspended portions of the earlier sentences were treated, including whether any were later activated.
The judge concluded that the warrant allowed more than one interpretation and did not give clear effect to each sentence as a separate term with custodial and non-custodial elements. She held that the third warrant was defective and could not lawfully support the applicant’s detention.
The applicant had been released on conditional temporary release before an earlier application for an inquiry under Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution. A judge had ruled that this procedure was unavailable because he was no longer in custody, and allowed him to seek judicial review. Justice Baker extended the time for the review, concluding that the applicant should not lose a remedy because of the unusual procedural circumstances and the changing legal position.
The High Court made an order of certiorari quashing the third warrant and directed the applicant’s immediate and unconditional release. The judgment did not quash the District Court sentences or the first two warrants.