The High Court has ordered Liam Craig Porter’s surrender to the United Kingdom to face prosecution over the alleged murder of Ryan Kirkpatrick in Carlisle in September 2021. The order followed the court’s dismissal of objections concerning the clarity of the warrant and whether the alleged offences corresponded to offences under Irish law.
In a judgment delivered on 17 February 2022, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said the warrant sought Porter’s surrender for murder, with manslaughter and assisting an offender described as alternative charges. The court found the warrant and additional information made clear the charges and the allegations behind them. It rejected the argument that surrender was prohibited under section 11 of the Extradition Act 2003 because the warrant was unclear about the number or nature of the offences.
The UK prosecution account, set out in the warrant and a later response to the High Court, alleges that Porter was with Kane Hull before and during two encounters with Kirkpatrick on 18 September 2021. It alleges that Hull fatally stabbed Kirkpatrick during the later encounter, while Porter was nearby. The prosecution further alleges that Porter left with Hull afterwards and remained with him as they travelled from the UK to Ireland. These are allegations; the Irish court did not determine their truth.
Porter also argued that the facts did not correspond to offences under Irish law, particularly the allegation of assisting an offender. His counsel submitted that the material did not allege Porter set fire to the vehicle found burnt out and that presence alone was insufficient to establish criminal responsibility. The judgment records that Porter accepted there was sufficient information for the murder and manslaughter allegations to correspond to Irish offences.
The court said its role was to assess whether the alleged acts, if committed in Ireland, would constitute corresponding offences, not to decide whether the evidence proved guilt or established a prima facie case. It found sufficient information to establish correspondence for murder, manslaughter and assisting an offender, and dismissed the objection under section 38.
The court ordered surrender under section 16 of the 2003 Act. The order permits the prosecution to proceed in the UK; guilt or innocence remains for the trial process there.