The Supreme Court dismissed Barry Doyle’s appeal, ruling that he was not entitled, in the circumstances of his case, to have a solicitor physically present during a Garda interview. The court held that his constitutional right of access to legal advice was met by consultations before the interview and a telephone consultation during it.
The judgment, delivered by Chief Justice Denham on 18 January 2017, addressed an appeal from a Court of Appeal decision of 8 June 2015. Leave to appeal had been granted on three issues: whether Doyle was entitled to have a solicitor present during his 15th interview; whether he could rely on the Supreme Court’s decision in DPP v Damache, delivered after his conviction; and whether alleged threats or inducements affected admissions attributed to him.
On the solicitor issue, the court said Doyle had consulted his solicitor shortly before the interview. At the solicitor’s request, the interview was interrupted so they could speak by telephone. The judgment said there had been no request for the solicitor to attend the interview. It concluded that access to a lawyer was the constitutional right at issue and that, in these circumstances, the right did not include the lawyer’s presence during questioning. The court also found that the European Convention rights raised had been met.
The judgment noted that, since an earlier decision in DPP v Gormley and DPP v White, the State had introduced a code of practice permitting a solicitor to be present during an interview if necessary. It also cited the video recording of interviews as relevant context.
The other two appeal issues were not resolved through detailed analysis in this judgment. Chief Justice Denham said she agreed with Justice Charleton’s judgment on both the Damache issue and the alleged threats and inducements. The appeal was dismissed. The source provided here does not include Justice Charleton’s reasoning or set out any separate order on those issues.