The Supreme Court has allowed books of evidence and transcripts from criminal proceedings in the Special Criminal Court to be produced for a civil action in Northern Ireland brought by victims and relatives of victims of the Omagh bombings.
The court dismissed appeals by five defendants against a High Court decision allowing production of the books of evidence. It also allowed a cross-appeal by the civil claimants, setting aside the refusal to declare that transcripts could be produced. The declaration is subject to consent from the High Court, or the Supreme Court on appeal.
The Northern Ireland courts had ordered production for inspection in the civil action, but made their orders conditional on there being no rule of law in this jurisdiction against production. The action seeks to establish that each of the five defendants was actively involved in the bombings; that remains an allegation in the civil proceedings.
The Irish High Court had granted leave to produce the books of evidence, but refused the requested declaration concerning transcripts. On appeal, the Supreme Court said approval from a court should be sought before books of evidence are used for a wholly different purpose. It grounded that requirement in the courts’ responsibility for the due administration of justice, rather than an assumed undertaking by accused people not to use the documents elsewhere.
The court held there was no prohibition on producing transcripts for inspection with court permission where necessary to do justice and where production would not cause relevant legal prejudice. It said Irish courts should accept a finding by a court in another jurisdiction that documents are necessary, unless there is reason to believe their handover could cause fundamental injustice. The Supreme Court said it should accept that a fair trial would be conducted in Northern Ireland and saw no legal prejudice to a possible or ordered retrial in Ireland from producing documents whose contents the defendants already knew.
One defendant’s conviction had been overturned and a retrial ordered. In that case, the Northern Ireland production order was limited to material about telephone evidence. The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that producing this material would not prejudice the retrial. The source judgment does not give the subsequent course or outcome of that retrial.
The judgment, delivered by Justice Geoghegan on 16 July 2008, gives reasons for the court’s ruling, which Chief Justice Murray had pronounced ex tempore on 4 April 2008.