The High Court refused a Cork Prison prisoner’s personal application for habeas corpus, finding no basis in the papers to inquire into the lawfulness of his detention. Mr Justice Peter Charleton said any arguments about the merits of the trial or possible procedural errors should be taken to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The judgment, delivered on 2 November 2010, records that the applicant was detained under a Circuit Court warrant following his conviction by a jury. The warrant stated that he was convicted on 16 March 2010 of possessing a controlled drug for unlawful sale or supply, where the market value exceeded €13,000. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. The warrant was dated 19 March 2010 and related to an offence said to have been committed on 5 October 2006.
In his written application, the prisoner said he was innocent and had been entrapped. He alleged that gardaí used a DHL parcel van to bring a box to his house in County Kerry before arresting him. He also challenged the evidence linking him to the box, saying its origin was not proved, the name on it was not his, he had not signed for it, and there was no matching DNA or fingerprint evidence. He said the prosecution discontinued an importation charge on the second day of trial and argued that the trial judge should have stopped the case.
Those were the applicant’s claims as summarised in the judgment, not findings by the High Court. The judge noted that the application presented only the prisoner’s account and that he had been legally represented at trial. The papers did not indicate a fundamental denial of fair procedures or show that his rights to the presumption of innocence, proof beyond reasonable doubt, and the opportunity to challenge the case had been infringed.
The judgment said there was no indication whether the prisoner had appealed, but identified an appeal as the appropriate remedy for the arguments he raised. It left any question of a technical procedural breach or misdirection to the Court of Criminal Appeal and refused the habeas corpus application.