The High Court has dismissed a judicial review brought by four sisters seeking access to the Garda investigation file concerning their brother’s killing before his inquest resumes.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Faherty on 23 October 2018, rejected the applicants’ challenge to the retired Dublin Coroner’s refusal to give them the file. The court also refused the declarations they sought against An Garda Síochána (AGS). It did not decide whether the Garda file should ultimately be disclosed or whether AGS had established its claim of public interest privilege.
Liam Murray was shot four times at his family home in Rathfarnham on 17 March 2009 and found dead three days later. Gardaí pursued nearly 1,900 lines of inquiry and took almost 700 statements. A file concerning two people arrested in connection with the killing went to the Director of Public Prosecutions in June 2013. The DPP directed that no prosecution be brought against them at that time. Garda evidence before the court was that the criminal investigation remained open.
An inquest began in January 2012. After receiving a copy of the Garda file sent to the DPP, the Coroner prepared draft depositions and provided material to the family’s solicitors. The sisters sought the wider file, saying they believed it contained information about threats to their brother in 2006 and 2009 that could help establish a fuller account of his death. Those were their submissions; the judgment did not establish that the file contained such material.
At a 2015 hearing, the Coroner ruled that he did not own the file and lacked jurisdiction to determine AGS’s claim of public interest privilege. Justice Faherty found that the Coroner had acted lawfully in declining to adjudicate on a claim he had no power to decide. She also found a prima facie basis for AGS to maintain the privilege claim while the murder investigation remained open, and that sending the file to the Coroner had not, on the evidence before her, removed that claim.
The court did not determine whether AGS had discharged the burden of establishing privilege. It also found no basis to declare the longstanding practice of Garda files being made available to the Dublin Coroner defective or lacking transparency, and found no unfairness in the inquest process to that point. The inquest had not yet resumed, and the Coroner could consider further evidence and witnesses.
The judgment said the sisters could make submissions and seek to have evidence considered at the inquest. They could also bring separate High Court proceedings seeking discovery of the file, which could provide a hearing on AGS’s privilege claim. All relief sought in the judicial review was denied.