The High Court has refused to halt the prosecution of P.M. over an alleged group attack on Henry Street, Dublin, in February 2022, despite finding that delays in progressing his case were excessive and blameworthy.
In a judgment delivered on 20 July 2026, Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan held that P.M.'s constitutional right to trial with due expedition had been breached. However, she concluded that the prejudice caused by the delay was not serious enough to outweigh the public interest in prosecuting charges of violent disorder and assault causing harm.
P.M. was 15 at the time of the alleged incident on 22 February 2022. Gardaí identified him from CCTV on 10 March and interviewed him eight days later. He admitted being present but denied criminal involvement.
He was not charged until 28 September 2024, two months after turning 18. The court found it significant that the Garda file was not sent to the DPP until 21 July 2024, just three days before his eighteenth birthday.
By then, P.M. had lost access to procedures available only to children. Four co-accused who remained under 18 had their cases retained by the Children Court despite the DPP recommending trial on indictment. P.M. argued there was a real prospect that his case too could have been dealt with summarily had it reached court earlier.
The High Court accepted there was a reasonable possibility that the Children Court might have accepted jurisdiction in his case. That could have limited any custodial sentence to 12 months rather than exposing him to the Circuit Court's wider sentencing powers.
However, the judge stressed that any Circuit Court sentencing judge must take account of P.M.'s age, maturity and culpability at the time of the alleged offences. There was also no suggestion that evidence had been lost or that his ability to defend himself had been impaired.
The application to prohibit the prosecution was therefore refused. The court left open the possibility of a reporting-restriction order to protect P.M.'s identity and said it would hear the parties further on that issue and on costs.