Supreme Court rejects Anthony Buck’s miscarriage of justice bid

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

The Supreme Court rejected Anthony Buck’s attempt to have his murder conviction considered a miscarriage of justice. On 24 April 2020, the court ruled that his application should be struck out because it had no reasonable prospect of succeeding.

Buck was convicted on 20 February 1998 at the Central Criminal Court of murdering David Nugent in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, between 8 and 9 July 1996. A jury also found him guilty of robbing cash and goods worth IR£825 from Mr Nugent. Mr Justice John Quirke sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder and 12 years for robbery, with the sentences to run concurrently.

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Buck’s appeal against conviction, and the Supreme Court dismissed a further appeal in 2002. Buck later argued that newly discovered facts showed a miscarriage of justice. The Court of Appeal dismissed his first application in 2015, and the Supreme Court declined leave to appeal that decision.

In 2018, the Court of Appeal dismissed a second miscarriage of justice application on the basis that it raised no new or newly discovered facts. The following year, the Supreme Court granted Buck leave to appeal issues concerning the distinction between new and newly discoverable facts.

Buck, who represented himself, presented 13 grounds. In the Supreme Court judgment delivered by Mr Justice Peter Charleton in 2020, the court found that no material had been put forward to support a miscarriage of justice application and that the Director of Public Prosecutions’ motion to strike it out must succeed.