The Irish Court of Appeal has upheld the re-arrest and detention of an escapee who, five years previously, had ‘walked out’ of an open prison.
The respondent was convicted in 2008 for the offence of allowing himself to be carried in a mechanically propelled vehicle without the consent of the owner contrary to s. 112(1)(b) of the Road Traffic Act 1961. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and escaped with 11 months outstanding. The Gardaí were immediately notified of his absconding but, due to human error, there was no entry of this incident made on the PULSE database. In the High Court, the arrest and detention was found to be in breach of constitutional justice and amounting to unacceptable delay.
The Court of Appeal held that the respondent was not denied fair procedures, and that it would not be oppressive to return him to prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence. In his decision Mr. Justice Hedigan said that “It is hard to see how issues of fair procedures could arise in the case of returning an escaped prisoner to custody. The role of the Gardaí is to catch such an escapee and hand him over to the prison authorities as quickly as practicable.”
The Court stated that the duty to act promptly in exercising a statutory power should not be isolated from the application of fair procedures which were afforded to the respondent. The Judge found that the defendant’s right to fair procedures was not breached, given that it was sufficiently vindicated as his identity was confirmed as someone who was unlawfully at large.
The appellant Judge believed that the High Court’s ruling had deprieved people of their expectation that the respondent must serve out his sentence, having been lawfully convicted. The public interest in ensuring that the respondent served out his sentence outweighs the alleged unfairness for the respondent returning to prison after a number of years.
Click here for the decision in Finnegan v The Superintendent of Tallaght Garda Station and The Governor of Wheatfield Prison.