The High Court has refused an application by Shane Sweeney to challenge a District Judge’s decision to refuse summary jurisdiction over an assault causing harm charge and send the case forward for a Book of Evidence.
The charge arose from an incident in a Galway pub on St Patrick’s Day 2011. Sweeney and Edward Ward were arrested and charged. At a District Court hearing on 3 February 2012, Sweeney’s solicitor said he intended to plead guilty, while Ward intended to plead not guilty.
The District Judge heard Ward’s case and acquitted him. During that trial, the judge heard evidence and saw CCTV footage of the incident. When Sweeney’s case was called afterwards, the judge asked the prosecution to outline the facts, then refused jurisdiction and adjourned the case for a Book of Evidence.
Sweeney argued that the judge had accepted jurisdiction over the charge before hearing Ward’s case and could not later change that decision. He also argued that the decision was arbitrary and unfair because the charges arose from the same incident. The Director of Public Prosecutions’ counsel argued that a District Judge must stop a summary case if evidence shows the alleged offence is not minor and suitable for summary disposal.
Mr Justice Michael Peart distinguished the case from a Supreme Court ruling involving a guilty plea accepted after the judge had decided, on an outline of the facts, that an offence was minor. The High Court found that, when Sweeney’s case was first called, the District Judge had been told only that he intended to plead guilty and knew little, if anything, about the facts. The judge had therefore made no decision at that point that the case was suitable for summary disposal, and had not accepted Sweeney’s plea.
The court said the judge was entitled to assess Sweeney’s case after hearing the evidence in Ward’s trial and receiving an outline of the allegations against Sweeney. It also rejected the equal-treatment argument, finding the accused persons’ respective involvement in the assault was not identical.
The High Court refused all the reliefs sought. The judgment records that Sweeney’s case was adjourned for a Book of Evidence; it does not determine the criminal charge against him.