The High Court has refused an application to surrender Cathal McGrath to the United Kingdom after finding that the identification material accompanying a European Arrest Warrant left substantial doubt about whether he was the person being sought.
UK authorities sought McGrath for prosecution over alleged rape, indecent assault and gross indecency offences against a girl under 14. He was arrested in County Donegal in October 2004 and did not consent to surrender.
The central dispute was identity. The warrant named Cathal McGrath and gave a date of birth of 19 February 1953, while also recording that a 1933 date had been used. McGrath denied ever using the earlier date and denied being the person shown in the photograph supplied with the warrant.
Ms Justice Macken found significant problems in the supporting records. A police photograph and fingerprint documentation arising from a 1999 arrest in Basingstoke identified a Cathal McGrath with a birth date of 19 February 1933. By contrast, affidavits referred to a custody record said to contain the 1953 date, but that record was not actually produced to the court.
The judge accepted that European Arrest Warrant proceedings operate on mutual recognition between EU states and do not require identity to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. But the High Court must still be satisfied that the person before it is the person named in the warrant. In this context, that meant reaching a firm conclusion without genuine or reasonable doubt.
The court found the unexplained 20-year discrepancy, poor-quality photographic material and lack of sufficiently connected records prevented it from doing so.
Other objections would not, by themselves, have prevented surrender. The court found the undertakings supplied by the UK sufficient and rejected objections concerning alleged duplication of offences and the Irish equivalent of gross indecency.
The surrender application was nevertheless refused because the statutory identity requirement had not been established.