The High Court has refused an application to prohibit the trial of two additional charges under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997, holding that their inclusion on the indictment was permitted by law.
The applicant, Brian Crane, faced three section 3 charges arising from an alleged assault on three youths after a fracas in a public house on 11 June 2003. The judgment records that he was sent forward for trial on a section 3 charge, while two section 2 summary charges remained before the District Court.
Crane’s solicitor said the defence believed until February 2007 that the indictment contained only one section 3 charge. He said he had not been given a copy of the indictment before the trial date and argued that the two added charges were not supported by facts in the Book of Evidence. The defence characterised the additions as an impermissible conversion of summary offences into indictable offences.
The Director of Public Prosecutions’ solicitor disputed that Crane had been taken by surprise. He said the indictment had always contained three section 3 counts, was available for inspection, and could have been provided if requested. He also relied on section 4M of the Criminal Procedure Act 1967, which allows an indictment to include additional counts founded on documents served on the accused and capable of being joined in the same indictment. The court was told that the two summary charges had since been struck out in the District Court.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said he was satisfied that the facts grounding the added charges appeared in statements in the Book of Evidence. He ruled that adding the charges was permitted under section 4M and that no unlawfulness had occurred. Crane had not established a basis to prohibit his trial on them, and the court refused the relief sought.
The judgment records that the trial had been adjourned pending the High Court’s decision. It does not decide whether Crane is guilty of any charge; the application concerned whether the trial could proceed on the two added counts.