The High Court has ruled that Jonathan Keogh may access the transcripts and judgment from Thomas McConnell’s later Special Criminal Court trial for the murder of Gareth Hutch.
Keogh was convicted of Hutch’s murder on November 2, 2018 and received the mandatory life sentence. He has been appealing that conviction since November 2018. McConnell, who was outside the jurisdiction at the time of Keogh’s trial, was later extradited and convicted of the same murder on December 20, 2024.
Keogh sought the full transcript of McConnell’s trial so his legal team could compare the evidence used in both prosecutions. Particular importance was attached to evidence from a witness who appeared in both trials and to material concerning Detective Garda Keyes, who had also given evidence in Keogh’s case and was later suspended.
McConnell opposed disclosure of the entire record, although he consented to Keogh receiving the evidence of two specific witnesses. He argued that the full transcript was unnecessary and could contain sensitive material creating a security risk.
Ms Justice Cahill held that the High Court has an inherent jurisdiction to order production of Special Criminal Court transcripts where no procedural rule provides another route. The test is whether disclosure is necessary for the purpose of doing justice and whether relevant legal prejudice would result.
The judge found that Keogh had met that test. She said there was obvious potential relevance in allowing a person convicted of one murder to examine the evidence later given against another person convicted of the same murder. Keogh’s legal team could not identify every relevant passage in advance because they had not attended McConnell’s trial.
The court stressed that its ruling does not decide whether any part of McConnell’s transcript can actually be used in Keogh’s appeal. That remains a matter for the Court of Appeal.
The precise undertaking restricting use of the material, as well as costs and transcript expenses, was left for later determination.