The High Court has ruled that David O’Rourke should not be returned to prison on foot of three re-issued committal warrants, finding that the District Court did not have adequate evidence to justify renewing them.
O’Rourke had received prison sentences arising from driving without insurance, handling stolen property and failing to surrender to bail. Some of the warrants remained unexecuted for more than three years before being renewed by the District Court on 10 October 2006.
The Garda evidence was that attempts had been made to locate O’Rourke at an address at Chamber Court in Dublin 8 and that his mother had said he did not live there. O’Rourke and his mother disputed that account.
The High Court found a separate difficulty. During the period when the warrants remained outstanding, O’Rourke had been stopped by Gardaí on nine occasions while driving and had supplied an address at Lower Dorset Street, Dublin 1. There was no evidence that attempts were made to execute the warrants there or during those encounters.
Mr Justice Hedigan held that the Garda efforts amounted to little more than sporadic visits to one address and did not adequately explain a delay exceeding three years.
The court also considered O’Rourke’s circumstances during that period. From October 2004 he had obtained stable employment with a Tallaght security company, completed IT training and begun repaying outstanding road traffic fines at €100 a week. In 2006 he himself wrote to the Minister for Justice seeking advice about any outstanding warrants.
By the time of the High Court proceedings, O’Rourke had already spent five months and two weeks in custody. The court calculated that only about five weeks remained to be served if the warrants were enforced.
The High Court held that the October 2006 re-issuance was invalid and of no effect and granted O’Rourke the relief sought, preventing his re-committal on those warrants.