The High Court quashed a District Court judge’s decision to send a Kilkenny assault case for trial on indictment after the accused had pleaded guilty, and prohibited the pending Circuit Court trial.
Mr Justice Meenan’s judgment, delivered on 10 November 2017, concerned a charge of assault causing harm under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. The applicant had been charged on 29 November 2015.
The District Court accepted jurisdiction on 3 May 2016, after hearing the alleged facts and having a medical report. The applicant pleaded guilty on 21 June. The judge directed preparation of a probation and welfare report and a victim impact statement, and adjourned the case for sentence.
At the next adjourned hearing, on 13 September 2016, the judge was informed of the victim impact statement and said he was no longer prepared to accept jurisdiction. The case was adjourned for service of a book of evidence, and the applicant was later returned for trial before the Circuit Criminal Court in Kilkenny. The prosecution was willing to proceed on a signed guilty plea, but the applicant did not sign one.
The applicant argued that once the guilty plea had been entered, only sentencing remained. The prosecution submitted that a judge who concluded the case should not be tried summarily had a duty to send it to the Circuit Court, even after a guilty plea. It also argued that any prejudice could be addressed by the trial judge.
Meenan referred to the Supreme Court’s decision in *Feeney v District Justice Clifford*, which he said directly addressed the issue. In that case, the Supreme Court held that where a guilty plea had been entered to an offence considered fit for summary trial, the conviction following the plea could not be set aside while the judge awaited sentencing information. The High Court also considered later authorities allowing reconsideration before acquittal or conviction, and concluded they were consistent with *Feeney*.
The court granted certiorari quashing the 18 October 2016 decision to return the applicant for trial, and prohibited the Circuit Court trial that was pending. It did not determine the remaining question of the applicant’s status in the District Court. Meenan said he would hear further submissions, including on whether the applicant had entered a guilty plea and therefore awaited sentence there.