The Court of Criminal Appeal has quashed Lynda Lee’s conviction for stealing a leather jacket from a Balbriggan clothing shop and has ruled that there should be no retrial.
Lee had been convicted by a Circuit Criminal Court jury of stealing a black leather jacket from Elegance Fashions in Bridge Street, Balbriggan, on October 5, 1996. She received a six-week prison sentence and was later released on bail pending appeal.
Shop owner Eileen Donnelly told the trial that two women entered the boutique and one left carrying the jacket. She followed them and recorded the registration of the car in which they drove away. The vehicle was registered to Lee.
Donnelly later identified Lee in Balbriggan District Court. However, no formal identification parade had been arranged. Lee maintained that she had remained at home that afternoon, and witnesses gave evidence supporting her account. Her parents said they had borrowed her car and driven it to Balbriggan.
The appeal court held that this was a case in which a formal identification parade should have been held. No explanation was offered for failing to arrange one.
The court identified serious weaknesses in the informal procedure. The women present in the District Court were of widely differing ages and appearances. There was also conflicting evidence about who was present, while Lee had no advance knowledge that an identification exercise was taking place and therefore no opportunity to challenge its fairness at the time.
Although the trial judge gave the jury the standard warning about possible mistakes in visual identification, the appeal court found that he failed to explain the specific weaknesses of the identification in this case or properly put Lee’s defence arguments before the jury.
That omission was fundamental to the fairness of the trial. The conviction and six-week sentence were therefore quashed, and the court decided not to order a retrial.