THE SUPREME Court has cleared the way for the retrial of building contractor Colm Murphy on a conspiracy charge connected with the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh.
The court, however, halted his trial on a charge of IRA membership arising from “extraordinary events” in his prosecution, since both charges were first preferred 10 years ago, including sickness of a judge and the prosecution on perjury charges of two gardaí who gave evidence in his first trial.
Mr Murphy (54), a native of Co Armagh with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, had appealed against a High Court decision refusing to halt a new trial before the non-jury Special Criminal Court (SCC).
He has denied conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998, and argued his prosecution should not be allowed go ahead on various grounds, including that delays breached his rights to a fair trial under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Yesterday, the five-judge court, comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray; Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly and Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, dismissed the appeal on the conspiracy charge but prevented a trial on the membership charge on grounds of unfairness.
Giving the court’s judgment, Mr Justice Geoghegan noted various periods of delay between Mr Murphy being charged in 1999 and being tried. His trial began in October 2001 but was adjourned because one of the Special Criminal Court judges became ill, and concluded in January 2002.
His appeal was also delayed, but Mr Justice Geoghegan upheld the High Court finding that much of that delay was down to Mr Murphy himself, including a two-and-a-half year delay filing legal submissions.
His appeal was allowed and a new trial ordered but that was also delayed pending the hearing of perjury proceedings against two gardaí who gave evidence in his trial. Both were acquitted.
The judge ruled the delay of some seven months in 1999 between Mr Murphy first being charged and service of the book of evidence could not be described as inordinate given the nature of the case and the events in connection with it. He also rejected claims of “systemic delays” due to lack of resources for the court. A further two-year delay between 2003 and 2005 was entirely explained by the prosecution for perjury of two gardaí, the judge added.
On claims Mr Murphy’s memory problem caused by head injuries suffered during a road crash in 1989 was such he could not have a fair trial, the judge ruled there was no basis to set aside the High Court findings. On all those grounds, the court said the retrial on the conspiracy charge could proceed.
However, the charge of membership was in a different position, the court ruled. That charge was included in the original indictment of February 1999 but any trial was postponed until the conclusion of the trial on the conspiracy count.
There had been no trial to date on the membership count, Mr Justice Geoghegan said. While it was reasonable to have sought to defer the trial until after the conspiracy proceedings given the special evidential rules on membership, the “extraordinary events” that had occurred in this case could not have been anticipated, including sickness of a judge, overlap of a trial and the perjury trial delay.
In those circumstances, it would be unfair to allow the trial proceed on that charge.
