The High Court refused to direct an inquiry into the lawfulness of Edward O’Sullivan’s detention in Cork Prison, rejecting his application for habeas corpus under Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution.
In a judgment delivered on 9 June 2016, Ms Justice Stewart said the applicant had not shown that the circumstances of his case entitled him to benefit from a later ruling that provisions used to reactivate his suspended sentence were unconstitutional.
O’Sullivan had been sentenced in 2010 to four years’ imprisonment for taking or using a vehicle without its owner’s consent. The final year was suspended for four years, subject to conditions that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour. After he was found in 2013 to have breached those conditions by committing robbery, the suspended year was reactivated.
He was also serving a separate four-year sentence for robbery, with the final two years suspended for five years, consecutive to the reactivated sentence.
O’Sullivan relied on a High Court ruling in Moore v DPP, in which sections 99(9) and 99(10) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 were declared unconstitutional. Those provisions had been used to reactivate his suspended sentence. He argued that the ruling meant he was entitled to habeas corpus relief.
Justice Stewart said a later finding of unconstitutionality did not automatically benefit everyone affected by the legislation. She referred to earlier authorities requiring an applicant to identify circumstances giving rise to unfairness or injustice, and said habeas corpus was not triggered by technicalities alone.
The judge noted that O’Sullivan had not disclosed what plea he entered at the robbery trial or whether he had tried to appeal the findings in that case. His argument rested on the Moore ruling, without engaging with the facts of his own case, the judgment said.
The court therefore refused to extend Moore’s declaration to O’Sullivan and declined to direct an inquiry into his detention. The judgment records that he was in custody at Cork Prison; it does not order his release.