A man serving a life sentence for murder is entitled to be given materials which will be considered by the Sentence Review Group when reviewing his sentence, the High Court declared yesterday.
Joseph Barry, currently in Castlerea Prison, was convicted of murder at Winchester Crown Court in England on November 26th, 1990, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, subject to his serving a mandatory 12 years in jail.
He was transferred to Ireland in November, 1998.
Barry got leave last year to challenge the SRG's refusal to grant him legal representation at the hearing of the review of his sentence and to disclose certain documents to him.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Butler said that the SRG had no disciplinary powers.
The judge accepted that Barry was entitled to see all documents considered by the SRG when reaching a recommendation.
It would also be reasonable for the SRG to argue that a certain document might be privileged and that it would not be in the public interest to disclose it.
The judge quashed a decision of the SRG of September 29th 2000, refusing Barry's request for documents which the group intended to consider at the hearing of his case in October 2000.
He granted a declaration that Barry was entitled to see documents with the proviso that they were subject to the right of the SRG to claim privilege.
He made a further order quashing any recommendations made by the SRG in its October 2000 review of Barry's sentence.