The Supreme Court has blocked the prosecution of Linda Eviston over a fatal 1998 road collision near Cullen, Co Cork, after finding that the manner in which the Director of Public Prosecutions reversed an earlier decision not to prosecute breached fair procedures.
Eviston was driving from Kilkenny to her home in Killarney on 28 June 1998 when her car collided with a vehicle driven by Tony Moynihan, who died. Her three-year-old son was in the rear of her car.
She told Gardaí that a rear tyre had earlier been changed in Cashel and that, shortly before the collision, her car suddenly pulled across the road. Engineers retained on her behalf reported that a deflated tyre could have caused the vehicle to go out of control.
Those reports were supplied to Gardaí. In early December 1998, Eviston’s solicitor was informed that the DPP had decided not to prosecute her.
Tony Moynihan’s father then wrote to the DPP asking that the decision be reconsidered. On 23 December, a summons issued charging Eviston with dangerous driving causing death. The DPP later confirmed that the original decision had undergone an internal review and had been reversed.
The Supreme Court rejected the proposition that the DPP could reverse a no-prosecution decision only where new evidence emerged. Chief Justice Keane held that the DPP was entitled to review an earlier decision, including on the same material, and that a victim’s relative could legitimately request such a review.
However, the decisive issue was fairness. Eviston had been expressly told she would not be prosecuted. She was not informed that the decision could later be reviewed, and the DPP acknowledged that no new evidence or changed circumstances had arisen before the reversal.
The court held that this subjected her to an unnecessary additional layer of anxiety and denied her the fair procedures required in the circumstances.
The DPP’s appeal was dismissed and the High Court order restraining further prosecution was affirmed.