Frank Nyhan is just one of 32 state solicitors, who play a vital part in bringing criminals to justice
“A file is being prepared for the DPP.” It’s a line we have all heard many times in news reports but who prepares these files for the Director of Public Prosecutions?
The answer is a state solicitor. It is no easy job, however, according to Frank Nyhan, a Cork-based state solicitor and president of the State Solicitors Association.
“I’ve been threatened by criminals leaving court on several occasions,” he says. “Once, a criminal wrote to me from jail threatening to burn me. Another time, one of my fellow state solicitors had his offices burned down in Limerick.”
The State Solicitors Association consists of solicitors in private practice who are contracted to the DPP to provide prosecution services in all counties outside Dublin. They also provide services to various Government departments under contract to the Chief State Solicitor and in recent times have been awarded contracts to prosecute, after competitive tender, by the Road Safety Authority, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Commission for Energy Regulation and the ESB.
The majority of cases that come before the DPP relate to road traffic offences, television licences and sexual abuse, according to Nyhan. “Serial killers, thankfully, are not an Irish phenomenon,” he says. “We have an awful lot of sex-abuse crimes unfortunately. I dealt with the Cloyne case, doing the prosecuting, so I’ve seen more than my fair share.”
About 90 per cent of the cases brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions are successful, he says. “If there isn’t enough evidence, they won’t bring the case. However, if the DPP does come back to us to say the case will go ahead, we will then prepare the book of evidence for the guards.
“The Garda file may contain a lot of information and interviews that are ‘hearsay’ so they can’t go into the book of evidence. If it’s not in the book of evidence, it can’t be brought up in court. The accused is entitled to see the book of evidence.”
Nyhan says the popularity of legal and crime programmes on television, such as Law and Order, Criminal Minds and Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), have not helped prosecutors as they have given witnesses, victims of crime and even the accused unrealistic expectations.
“They think DNA can be identified immediately using a computer. They don’t understand why it takes so long to gather evidence. They expect things to be instant.”
Nyhan studied for a BCL in UCD before becoming a trainee at a law firm in his hometown of Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
“I then moved on to work for a law firm in Mallow, where I stayed for 25 years before setting up my own firm in 2007. Thus we had only one boom year.”
He became a state solicitor in 1997. “Back then the government appointed a state solicitor after the previous one died. We then worked for the Chief State Solicitor. Now we work under contract for the DPP. The DPP felt there was an anomaly in the system. The DPP had responsibility for criminal prosecutions but not for the prosecutors. The criminal lawyers under the Chief State Solicitor were thus transferred as the Chief State Solicitor only deals with non-criminal work.”
There are 32 state solicitors in Ireland. “We represent the DPP in various regions such as Cork. All prosecutions directed by the DPP come through us.
“We appear in the District Court and direct counsel in the Circuit and Criminal Courts. We prosecute for the Road Safety Authority, the National Employment Rights Authority, the ESB, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Social Welfare. We are professional prosecutors.”
The work is varied. Sometimes, for example, a member of the public tampers with the electricity meter so as to have a much lower electricity bill, or so they can have a hash factory in their house, according to Nyhan. “In cases like that, we will prosecute for the ESB.”
Has he ever made any mistakes in his role? “I haven’t been sued and no one has died, so there’ve been no big mistakes in my legal career.”
Nyhan says his career as a state solicitor has not been affected by the downturn. “Crime is recession-proof. If anything, it tends to go up and not down in a recession so we have more work.”
He says the Irish legal system, unlike the US system, is less likely to see a miscarriage of justice. “I have never seen a miscarriage of justice in all my time as a prosecutor. The prosecutors present the evidence but it’s for a jury to decide, ultimately, and juries take the reasonable doubt requirement to heart.”