The Court of Appeal has dismissed Richard Higgins’s appeal against his conviction for murdering Sean Murphy in Lattin, Co Tipperary, in January 2010. The court found no basis to overturn the conviction after considering seven grounds of appeal.
Mr Higgins was convicted following a 12-day jury trial in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also convicted by majority verdict on two counts of making threats to kill and received two concurrent two-year sentences, to run alongside the life sentence.
The appeal challenged the admission of an incomplete audio recording made in the smoking area of Aherne’s Bar, and the prosecution’s handling of evidence from witnesses Katie Quinn and Emma Butler. The court held that the recording was relevant and probative, and that the trial judge had properly admitted it. It also found that the judge was entitled to allow Ms Quinn and Ms Butler to refresh their memories from their statements. The defence had not objected when Ms Butler was shown her statement, the judgment noted.
Mr Higgins argued that the judge should have directed acquittals on three other indictment counts, which the judgment identifies as counts 2, 3 and 4. The Court of Appeal said the applicable question was whether there was enough evidence on which a properly instructed jury could convict. It answered yes and dismissed that ground.
The court also rejected arguments that the jury had not been adequately directed on self-defence and that the trial judge had unfairly challenged defence criticism of five additional threat-to-kill charges. The court said the additional counts arose from a statement by witness Paula Hassett that had been served on the defence before trial. It described the prosecution’s reason for adding the counts—to ensure the threat evidence would not be excluded—as “somewhat unusual”, but held that the prosecutor was entitled to take that decision and that no unfairness arose from the judge’s comments.
The Court of Appeal considered whether the grounds, taken together, made the verdict unsafe or the trial unsatisfactory. It concluded they did not and dismissed the appeal against conviction. The judgment does not change the convictions or sentences.