The Court of Appeal has dismissed Ryan Glennon’s appeal against his conviction for membership of an unlawful organisation, rejecting all grounds raised against the Special Criminal Court’s decision.
The judgment, delivered on 28 June 2018 by President of the Court of Appeal Birmingham, concerned Glennon’s conviction on 11 November 2016. The charge was that he was in the State on 13 May 2015 and was a member of an organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, also known as Óglaigh na hÉireann or the IRA.
The prosecution case included opinion evidence from Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Kirwan, evidence about Glennon’s failure to answer questions in detention, surveillance in Courtown, County Wexford, and forensic evidence from a holiday home at 19 Harbour Court. The house was owned by Glennon’s parents. Explosives and related materials were found there on 13 May 2015. Glennon’s DNA and that of Donal Costigan were found on gardening gloves located near the explosives; Glennon’s fingerprints were found on a trolley holding a water butt containing explosives.
Glennon challenged, among other matters, the lawfulness of decisions made during his detention, the admission of evidence about a sample taken from Costigan, the breadth of privilege claimed by Kirwan, the treatment of forensic and surveillance evidence, and the inferences drawn from Glennon’s silence.
The Court of Appeal rejected the detention-related challenge, finding no statutory requirement that the Garda officers making the relevant decisions be independent of the investigation. It also held that the trial court was entitled to admit the late evidence about Costigan’s sample: the defence had been offered time to respond but did not seek it, and had been on notice that the prosecution intended to rely on DNA evidence from both men on the gloves.
The appeal court upheld the trial court’s acceptance of Kirwan’s opinion evidence and privilege claim. It said the extent of such claims can vary between cases and rejected the grounds challenging how that evidence was handled.
On the house evidence, the appeal court accepted that the trial court may have gone beyond what was strictly justified when it said bags seen transferred between vehicles had “later” been found in the house. But it held that the evidence from the house remained highly significant in the context of the prosecution case.
The court also held that the trial court was entitled to conclude that Glennon’s failure to answer material questions supported the prosecution case. It said there was no evidential basis for the defence suggestion that he had remained silent to protect others.
Having rejected every ground of appeal, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. The judgment does not alter the conviction.