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A High Court action brought by the mother of murdered boxer Kevin Sheehy aimed at preventing her son’s killer from being transferred from an Irish prison to one in the UK has been resolved.
The action against the Minister for Justice was brought by Tracey Tully, whose 20-year-old son was killed by Logan Jackson at Hyde Road, Limerick, on July 1st, 2019.
Earlier this year she was granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings against the Minister’s decision to sanction Mr Logan’s proposed transfer to a prison in his native UK.
Ms Tully, represented by Ciaran O’Loughlin SC with Arthur Griffin BL, instructed by Sinead Nolan of Mark Murphy solicitors, claimed the Minister’s decision amounted to a breach of the client’s rights under the 2017 Victims of Crime Act.
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The proceedings were resolved between the parties arising out of the Minister’s decision to rescind her sanctioning of Jackson’s transfer to a British prison.
It is understood that both Jackson and Ms Tully’s representatives will make fresh submissions to the Minister regarding any renewed transfer application.
When the case was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan on Wednesday the court was told that the parties had agreed that the case can now be struck out.
The court also made an order that legal costs incurred by Ms Tully, and Jackson be paid by the State.
She sought an order quashing the Minister’s decision to allow Logan Jackson, who is serving a life sentence for Mr Sheehy’s murder, in Limerick Prison to be repatriated back to England.
She also wanted declarations from the court including that the proposed transfer breaches her rights under the 2017 Victim of Crime Act and was made outside of the Minister’s powers under the 2019 Parole Act.
She further asked the court to declare that the decision to transfer Jackson was unconstitutional as it removed the jurisdiction for sentencing Jackson from the Irish state and handed it over to another state.
She claimed Irish legislation gives victims the right to be consulted on parole applications by their wrongdoers.
Ms Tully claimed those rights would be extinguished if Jackson’s transfer went ahead.
She claimed she would not have had any say or have been able to make submissions to the UK authorities if Jackson applies for parole.
She also claimed the Minister’s decision was unconstitutional and an “abdication of the Irish State’s responsibility to determine when a person serving a life sentence may be paroled”.
The Minister denied Ms Tully’s rights were breached and claimed the transfer was lawfully approved.
Lawyers representing both the Minister and Jackson, who was a notice party to the proceedings, opposed the application for permission to bring the case and argued Ms Tully’s action should have been dismissed.
In a ruling last July, Ms Justice Phelan said she was satisfied that the legal threshold to allow Ms Tully to bring her claim had been reached.
Ms Tully, the judge added, raised grounds concerning the rights of victims of crime that are arguable.
The full hearing of the case was due to go before the High Court.
However, the case was overtaken after the Minister reversed her original decision resulting in the legal action being struck out.
Mr Sheehy, an Irish champion boxer, died after being repeatedly struck by a vehicle driven by Jackson of Longford Road, Coventry, England.
Last year Jackson was convicted of Mr Sheehy’s murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following his conviction, Jackson, who is aged in his early thirties, successfully applied to the Minister for Justice for a transfer from Ireland so he can serve out his sentence in an English prison.
In a statement issued outside the court, Ms Tully said “the proceedings aimed at blocking the repatriation of the murderer Logan Jackson to England have come to an end.
She added that success in the High Court in forcing the Minister for Justice to rescind her original decision is just the “bell between rounds”. She vowed to fight on in what she has described as “one last round for Kevin”.
The decision on whether or not to return Mr Jackson to the UK now lies in the hands of Minister Helen McEntee. The Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act 1995 leaves the power to decide whether to repatriate or not at the Minister’s discretion.
The Minister had determined to return the murderer to England to serve his sentence there. This move, however, could mean that the victim’s family may be deprived of the right to make contributions when the murderer, Mr Jackson, becomes eligible for parole.
However, following the successful granting of leave to challenge the Minister’s decision in the High Court by Ms Justice Phelan, the Minister has rescinded her original decision and is once again reviewing Mr Jackson’s application to go back to his home country and out of the jurisdiction of the Irish