The Court of Appeal has quashed Derek Hearns’s conviction for producing a knife under section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990, finding that the jury had not been properly directed on the offence and returned a verdict inconsistent with its acquittal on false imprisonment.
The appeal concerned a count alleging that Hearns produced a knife while committing false imprisonment. At his 2020 trial in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a jury convicted him on that count, as well as of robbery and theft, but acquitted him of false imprisonment. The appeal did not challenge the robbery or theft convictions.
The prosecution argued that the knife had been produced during the robbery, and that the verdict was therefore consistent with the jury’s other decisions. The Court of Appeal said that possibility might matter in other circumstances. But the indictment specified false imprisonment as the offence being committed, and the jury had not been asked to consider whether the knife was produced during another offence or a dispute or fight.
The court found that the trial judge had not explained key parts of the section 11 offence. The jury was not told that the offence could involve producing an article while committing, or appearing about to commit, an offence, or in the course of a dispute or fight. The judge also did not link the section 11 count to the false imprisonment count or explain that the jury had to consider whether the relevant offence requirement was met.
The court said the guilty verdict was logical on the limited directions the jury received, but a properly directed jury could not properly convict on a count expressly tied to false imprisonment while acquitting Hearns of that offence. It found a real risk of injustice because he had been convicted on an improper legal basis.
The court allowed the appeal against the section 11 conviction. It did not overturn the robbery or theft convictions, which were not appealed. The judgment noted that the trial judge had said the section 11 sentence would not prejudice Hearns when sentencing, and described the prejudice from the conviction as marginal; it did not order a retrial in the judgment provided.