The Court of Appeal has dismissed Commandant Nile Donohoe’s appeal against his court-martial convictions for assault and using insulting language to a superior officer, ruling that the convictions were safe.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 9 March 2017, dealt only with the conviction appeal and Donohoe’s motion to add grounds and introduce what he described as fresh evidence. It did not determine the Director of Military Prosecutions’ separate application to review the sentence as unduly lenient.
Donohoe had been convicted by a General Court-Martial of assaulting Lieutenant Colonel John Moloney, contrary to section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, and using insulting language to a superior officer, contrary to section 133 of the Defence Act 1954. The alleged incident occurred at Moloney’s office at Casement Aerodrome on 10 August 2007. Moloney’s trial evidence was that Donohoe followed him to a locker room, continued verbally abusing him and prodded him in the chest. The appeal court said it did not need to examine the trial evidence in detail because the appeal concerned military procedure and fairness.
Donohoe sought to rely on a 2016 letter about his chain of command, as well as claims of prejudice from prosecution delay and missing CCTV footage. The court refused the motion to admit the material or add the proposed grounds. It said the chain-of-command information could reasonably have been obtained by the time of trial, and Donohoe had not identified any board member who was in the same military chain of command. The Director’s evidence was that no such person had served on the board. The court also found no new evidence concerning delay or CCTV.
The appeal court rejected the original grounds. It said the complaint about board selection had been raised and then not pursued at trial. Donohoe had not shown specific prejudice from delay or identified evidence that was withheld or lost and could have assisted his defence. The court also found no evidence that the prosecuting authorities acted incompatibly with the European Convention on Human Rights, and said the alleged conflict-of-interest complaints could not be pursued on this appeal without a relevant trial ruling being challenged.
Donohoe had been sentenced to reduction to the fourth point of the Commandant pay scale from 1 August 2015 and a fine equal to 10 days’ pay. The Court of Appeal’s order in this judgment was to dismiss his conviction appeal.