The High Court has refused a renewed application by Dermot O’Callaghan for leave to bring judicial review proceedings over rulings made during his criminal trial.
In a ruling delivered on 5 January 2021, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said the complaints concerned decisions made during an ongoing criminal trial and were not suitable for judicial review. He said Mr O’Callaghan should raise them first before the Circuit Criminal Court and, if necessary, appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Mr O’Callaghan had initially been refused leave in October 2020. He renewed his application on 19 November, submitting a further affidavit and arguing that the High Court had been misled about the circumstances of his trial. Justice Simons rejected that claim, saying the earlier judgment showed the court had been fully aware of the procedural history.
The trial concerned two charges relating to an armed robbery said to have taken place at Ulster Bank in Stillorgan, County Dublin, on 26 September 2017. During the March 2020 trial, the prosecution indicated it would enter a nolle prosequi on some charges. Mr O’Callaghan then pleaded guilty to an existing count and a new count, after being formally arraigned on the new count. He later sought to withdraw his guilty plea, but the trial judge refused that application.
In his renewed application, Mr O’Callaghan alleged that he had pleaded guilty to only one charge, possession of an imitation firearm, and that the trial judge should not have allowed him to change his original not-guilty plea. The High Court did not decide those complaints on their merits. It said judicial review examines the legality of the decision-making process and is not a rehearing or substitute for an appeal.
The judge also noted that, when the renewed application was made, Mr O’Callaghan had not yet been sentenced in the case at issue. He was serving an eight-year prison term, with the final year suspended, for an unrelated conviction imposed in 2018. The ruling said he would remain in custody regardless of the judicial review outcome, and that pursuing the ordinary appeal route would cause no prejudice on that account.
The renewed application for leave was refused. The court directed that the ruling be sent to Mr O’Callaghan, the Director of Public Prosecutions through the Office of the Chief Prosecution Solicitor, and the relevant Circuit Court Office.