The Court of Criminal Appeal has allowed counsel for a man convicted of murder to inspect the balance of a separate case file, citing the particular circumstances of the application.
In a judgment delivered on 21 December 2005, the court granted the application insofar as it sought disclosure to counsel of the remaining file in the case of Martin Dunne. The court said part of that file had already been provided and the State had agreed to preserve all evidence on it, including forensic samples.
The applicant, identified in the judgment as Gerald McKeever and elsewhere as Gerard McKeever, was convicted in the Central Criminal Court on 15 July 2003 of murdering Glen Dunne and sentenced to life imprisonment. He had filed papers seeking leave to appeal his conviction. The judgment does not decide that application for leave.
The motion before the court sought disclosure of material relating to Martin Dunne’s convictions for rape, assault and/or burglary, and any involvement of Glen Dunne in the events underlying those convictions. The motion also sought preservation of relevant records, samples and test results.
On the preservation request, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions said the State did not intend to destroy the material. The court therefore found it unnecessary to determine that request. It said the sole issue before it was access to the balance of the Martin Dunne file.
The court stressed that neither the substance of the application for leave to appeal nor any request to introduce additional evidence in a future appeal was before it. It expressed no view on those matters and said none should be inferred from its decision. The order was limited to disclosure of the remaining file to the applicant’s counsel.