The High Court has refused an application to prohibit the prosecution of a man charged over alleged firearms and explosives offences committed when he was 16, finding no culpable prosecutorial delay and ruling that his challenge also amounted to an impermissible collateral attack on an earlier District Court decision.
Mr Justice Noonan delivered the judgment on 3 May 2019. The applicant sought to stop the prosecution, arguing that delay meant he had lost protections and potential sentencing advantages available to him if tried as a child. He had turned 18 before he was charged.
The charges followed a Garda investigation into a car stopped on the M7 near Mountrath, Co Laois, on 25 February 2016. The applicant was a passenger. Gardaí found an airgun under the front passenger seat and a holdall in the boot containing a pipe bomb, a Glock pistol and ammunition. The applicant and driver Valerijis Vins were arrested.
The applicant told Gardaí he thought he was collecting a grenade, denied knowing about the pistol or ammunition, and said he had bought the airgun. He also said he acted under pressure from a third person because of a drug debt. Gardaí identified that person as Jonathan Keogh from CCTV footage of a meeting at a service station near Lusk, Co Dublin. Keogh later fled Ireland and was extradited from the UK in August 2017. The judge said the most significant delay was the period of about 15 months between Keogh leaving the jurisdiction and his return.
The applicant argued that Gardaí had enough evidence to prosecute earlier and did not need to wait to interview Keogh. The judge rejected that submission, saying investigators were entitled and obliged to pursue a full investigation into serious allegations, including the possible role of others and evidence that might support the applicant’s account. The applicant was charged on 27 September 2018 with possession of an explosive device, ammunition, a Glock pistol and an airsoft gun.
The judge said the special duty to progress cases involving children quickly did not itself require a prosecution to be stopped. Even if there had been culpable delay, he found the public interest in prosecuting serious offences outweighed the claimed prejudice. He considered the protections the applicant said he had lost, his admissions concerning the explosives and airgun, and the judge’s account of 18 previous convictions, 17 for offences committed while on bail.
The District Court had refused an earlier application to strike out the charges on delay grounds on 1 November 2018, and that decision was not appealed. Mr Justice Noonan held that the applicant was out of time to challenge it directly and could not relitigate the issue indirectly through judicial review. He dismissed the application.