Maurice Power granted leave to appeal murder conviction

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Maurice Power was granted leave to appeal his murder conviction by the Supreme Court on 28 May 2019. The judges were O'Donnell J., McKechnie J. and Charleton J.

Power was convicted of murder before the Central Criminal Court on 5 June 2014. The victim was Shane Rossiter, who was shot on 17 October 2012 while emerging from a social gathering.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction on 24 April 2018. Its order was perfected on 5 November 2018. Power applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on 30 November 2018, within time.

One issue raised concerned a third extension of Power's detention, authorised by a District Court judge after earlier extensions by senior Garda officers. The determination recorded that the Court of Appeal had ruled that the detention could be challenged only by judicial review.

The defence had argued that the detention authorised by the District Court in Cashel on 13 December 2012 was invalid because the judge had not been told that Power had begun making admissions. The quoted trial ruling said further investigations remained necessary and rejected the suggestion that disclosing the admissions would have materially changed the detention order. It also noted that Power was present and legally represented at the detention hearing.