The High Court has dismissed a bid for an inquiry into the ongoing detention of one of three men convicted of multiple offences committed during an attack on security guards at a repossessed farmhouse in Roscommon five years ago.
In his judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said he was not prepared to direct the opening of an inquiry, under Article 40 of the Irish Constitution, into the ongoing detention in Castlerea Prison of Co Mayo farmer Martin O’Toole (59), otherwise known as Martin Thomas of Stripe, Irishtown, Claremorris.
Following a three-month trial earlier this year Mr O’Toole/Thomas was found guilty of several offences and was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison by Judge Martina Baxter.
He has rejected any wrongdoing.
In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Sanfey noted the legal threshold for ordering such an inquiry into a person’s detention was quite low.
However, he refused the application, which amounted to a “collateral attack” on the verdict, hearing and sentence handed down by the Circuit Criminal Court.
The judge said the High Court can only interfere with the detention of a person found guilty by a jury following a criminal trial when it has been clearly made out that the conduct of that trial was fundamentally flawed.
The judge said the contention that Mr O’Toole’s trial was so defective that an inquiry should be ordered had not been made out before him.
He noted that much of the evidence put before the High Court contained hearsay and, he added, it was unfortunate Mr O’Toole had not put any documentation before the court in support of their application for an inquiry.
The application was brought on Mr O’Toole’s behalf by two individuals described as friends and associates of the convicted man.
They were: Melissa Kelly, who the judge said described herself as being a republican, farmer, and a member of a group called Concerned Parents against Government Overreach; and Joe Doocey, who the judge described as a machine driver, journalist and member of groups including the Anti-Eviction Task Force.
They sought the inquiry on several grounds including that Mr O’Toole should be released because Judge Baxter refused to halt the criminal trial to allow the High Court to consider a constitutional challenge aimed at stopping the trial from continuing.
It was further argued that the criminal trial was highly flawed on grounds including that certain evidence including pictures from body cameras of people at the farmlands in Strokestown during the incident that resulted in the prosecutions, and Garda documents were not provided to the defendants in the criminal trial.
It was further claimed Mr O’Toole, who they described as an innocent man, had been disadvantaged during the trial after he dismissed his legal team for allegedly not following his instructions.
The application was made against several parties including the governor of Castlerea Prison, the DPP, the Garda Commissioner, the Attorney General and Judge Baxter.
Michael Hourigan BL, for the Governor, and Kieran Kelly BL, for the DPP, had argued that many of the issues raised by Ms Kelly and Mr Doocey were issues for an appeal.
In his ruling, the judge agreed that an appeal was “a clear remedy” to raise many of the complaints.
Mr O’Toole was, along with PJ Sweeney (44) and Paul Beirne (56), found guilty by a jury at a Circuit Criminal Court earlier this year of charges in relation to the incident at Falsk, Strokestown on December 16th, 2018, including aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage to a door of a house.
They were also found guilty of false imprisonment of and assault causing harm to Ian Gordon, Mark Rissen, John Graham, and Gary McCourtney, arson in relation to three vans, and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The property was the scene of a controversial repossession by agents of KBC bank.
A fourth man was acquitted of the charges.