The High Court rejected Christopher Dunne’s written application challenging the legality of the committal warrants under which he was held in custody, finding that he was in legal detention serving a sentence imposed by the Circuit Criminal Court.
In a judgment delivered on 15 September 2016, Mr Justice White considered Dunne’s challenge to warrants relating to several sentences. He had received a five-year sentence for burglary at Naas Circuit Court on 25 July 2014, with the final year suspended.
On 29 June 2015, he was sentenced on three separate bill numbers in the Criminal Courts of Justice. One sentence was three years for theft and unlawful use of a mechanically propelled vehicle, to run consecutively to the 2014 sentence. A separate three-year sentence was imposed for possessing articles intended for use in connection with other offences and for having no insurance. On another indictment, he received three years and six months for criminal damage and five years and six months for threatening to kill or cause serious harm. That latter sentence was to run consecutively to the 2014 sentence, with its final 18 months suspended.
Dunne argued that the registrars who signed the warrants had not been lawfully nominated or shown to be authorised nominees; that the warrants lacked the court seal; and that they were not authenticated by the County Registrar’s seal and signature. He also relied on sections 56(2), (3) and (4) of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961.
The judgment set out Order 4, rule 1 of the Consolidated Circuit Court Rules, which provides for court documents to be authenticated by the County Registrar or by specified nominees. It also described provisions allowing staff in a combined court office to authenticate the court’s seal when nominated by the office manager.
White said the relevant offices at Naas and Dublin were combined court offices, and that a Courts Service staff member employed there could be nominated by the combined court office manager to authenticate the seal. He said section 56 of the 1961 Act was irrelevant because it concerned the continuation in office of a County Registrar for one year after reaching 65.
The court’s stated conclusion was that Dunne was in legal detention serving a Circuit Criminal Court sentence. The judgment does not record a separate order or further relief beyond that conclusion.