The Court of Criminal Appeal has allowed Samuel Devlin’s appeal against his conviction for possessing a pipe bomb and set aside both the conviction and the seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed by the Special Criminal Court.
In a judgment delivered on 6 July 2012, Mr Justice Fennelly said the trial court’s finding depended on inferences from Devlin’s Garda interviews, but those inferences were not supported by the evidence and reasoning set out in its judgment.
The conviction arose from events on 15 October 2010. Gardaí following a car from Dublin to Waterford saw Devlin, a passenger, get out at a filling station and open the boot. A rucksack in the boot contained a pipe bomb. An explosive ordnance officer testified that the device had the components of a viable improvised explosive device. The device was made safe and destroyed.
The Special Criminal Court also considered black gloves, a box cutter and insulation tape found on Devlin. It concluded that those items, along with his answers in interviews, supported a finding that he knew what was in the rucksack and had knowingly possessed the bomb. Devlin had denied knowing there was an explosive device in the car. When later asked to account for the bomb and the items, he referred interviewers to his earlier answers; he also said the knife and tape had been in his jacket from the last time he wore it.
On appeal, the court said the trial court had not found that Devlin handled the rucksack or bomb, or knew the bomb was there. It had noted that he had his hands in the boot, but had not resolved whether the bomb was visible without opening the rucksack further. The appeal court said it had to assess the trial court’s stated reasons and could not replace them with a different analysis of the evidence.
The court found that Devlin had given an account of the knife and tape, so his answers about those items could not be treated as a failure or refusal to account under section 18 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. It also said the trial court’s suggestion that the knife could have been used to cut tape was speculative, and there was no evidence linking Devlin to the bomb through forensic evidence or establishing that the tape on him was the same kind as tape on the device.
The court allowed the appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence. The judgment does not record a retrial order or any further order.