Appeal court overturns conviction for assault

The Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned the conviction and eight-year sentence imposed on a Limerick man in connection with an assault in a fast food outlet in the city during which a man had part of his nose bitten off. A retrial has been ordered.

The three-judge court, presided over by Mr Justice Keane, quashed the conviction of Mr Gordon Ryan because of the failure at his trial to ascertain - in breach of Section 18.2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 - the number of jurors who agreed with and dissented from the guilty verdict.

Section 18.2 states a court shall not accept a verdict of guilty unless the foreman of the jury has stated in open court whether the verdict is a unanimous or a majority decision. In the case of a majority, the section also obliges the foreman to state the number of jurors who agreed and disagreed.

Mr Ryan, of Clarina Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court for wounding Mr Anthony O'Mahony with intent at O'Connell Street, Limerick, between 10 p.m. on September 11th and 1 a.m. on September 12th, 1995.

During the assault, some of Mr O'Mahony's nose was bitten off, requiring plastic surgical reconstruction.

In court yesterday, Mr Seamus Sorahan SC, for Mr Ryan, said he was confining the appeal to the ground under Section 18.2 of the Criminal Justice Act. He said it was a mandatory requirement to ascertain the number of jurors who agreed with and dissented from a majority jury verdict of guilty.

Mr Des Nix, for the DPP, said he could not understand how he, other counsel and the trial judge had missed noting the mandatory requirement when the jury returned with its verdict. But he could not depart from what the transcript of the trial indicated.

Mr Justice Keane, presiding, with Miss Justice Carroll and Mr Justice Kelly, said Section 18.2 was a mandatory requirement which had not been complied with at Mr Ryan's trial. The failure to comply vitiated the jury's verdict.

He said the court would quash the conviction and order a retrial. He directed that Mr Ryan may be admitted to bail before the Governor at Cork Prison today.