The High Court has refused Thomas Kenny’s application to prohibit the Director of Public Prosecutions from proceeding with criminal charges, holding that the additional charges and the delay before he was charged did not justify the relief sought.
Kenny was first arrested on 4 April 2008 on suspicion of assault and released without charge. On 12 May 2009, he was re-arrested outside Blanchardstown Court House under section 10(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. He was taken to Dunshaughlin Garda Station and charged with assault, criminal damage and two counts of attempted theft before being brought to Dunshaughlin District Court and released.
Kenny argued that section 10(2) required him to be charged “forthwith” with the assault identified at the time of arrest. He said the additional charges breached the provision and that the time spent in custody before he was charged violated his constitutional right to liberty. The DPP argued that the provision did not prevent charging a person with other offences and that the delay arose from processing and technical difficulties, not further questioning.
Mr Justice Hedigan found that section 10(2) did not make a person arrested for one offence immune from charges for other offences. He distinguished the case from Massoud v Judge Ann Watkins and the DPP, where the person was not charged with the offence for which he had been re-arrested. Kenny, by contrast, was charged with the assault identified at his arrest, along with the additional offences directed by the DPP.
The judge recorded that Kenny was arrested at 12.40pm, arrived at the station at 1pm, and was charged at 1.50pm. The Garda member had to contact a sergeant elsewhere to obtain access to the system needed to update and print the charge sheets. Hedigan accepted that “forthwith” requires more than charging as soon as practicable, but found the delay was limited and explained. He said the journey to the station and normal custody processing had to be taken into account, and concluded that the charging was still “forthwith”.
The court also held that, even if Kenny had not been charged forthwith, that would not by itself remove the District Court’s jurisdiction to hear the charges. Hedigan found the delay accidental, with no further questioning or deliberate and conscious violation of Kenny’s constitutional rights. He refused the relief sought. The judgment does not determine the criminal charges themselves.