The Supreme Court has increased the damages payable to Frank Shortt by the State to €4,623,871, after allowing his appeal against the amount awarded by the High Court. The appeal concerned damages; the Court did not revisit the earlier decision to quash his conviction or certify a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Shortt was convicted in 1995 of allowing drugs to be sold at the Point Inn, his licensed premises in Co Donegal. He served 27 months in prison. The Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the conviction in November 2000, and in July 2002 certified that there had been a miscarriage of justice.
The Supreme Court judgment, delivered by Chief Justice Murray on 21 March 2007, described evidence that two Garda officers conspired to prepare false evidence for the trial and gave perjured evidence. It said their misconduct and subsequent efforts to conceal it undermined the process of justice. The State did not contest the findings concerning the procurement of the conviction, its quashing or the personal consequences for Mr Shortt, though it disputed the extent of some financial losses.
The Supreme Court increased the post-charge general damages award to €2.25m, expressly including aggravated damages. It also awarded €1m in exemplary damages, describing the conduct as an exceptional and egregious abuse of power and stating that a substantial award was needed to mark the Court’s disapproval and vindicate Mr Shortt’s rights.
The Court left unchanged €5,000 for wrongful damage to furniture and an emergency exit door during Garda searches before 1 October 1992. It upheld the High Court’s findings that the evidence did not establish that the roadblocks, searches and raids during that earlier period were an abuse of power or motivated by an improper purpose. The Court also left intact the special-damages awards: €12,650 in legal fees, €550,000 for lost Point Inn profits, and €806,221 for the loss of the Point Inn and caravan park. It rejected Mr Shortt’s appeal against those amounts.
The resulting total was €4,623,871 against the defendants: the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, Ireland and the Attorney General. The judgment addressed the damages appeal and did not make a new ruling on the earlier criminal conviction.