THE NUMBER of files received by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) increased last year to a record 16,140, according to his annual report for 2008.
The report also showed that the files referred for prosecution in 2007 resulted in conviction in 97 per cent of cases. The report only shows the outcome of cases for 2007, as many of the files processed in 2008 are awaiting trial.
The number of files being received by the office has been rising year-on-year since it was set up in 1975, when 2,298 were received. By 1998 it had reached 7,088, but this doubled again in the last decade, and last year’s total represented an increase of 739 cases on the previous year.
In his foreword to the report, the DPP, James Hamilton, pointed out that his office was different from most Government offices in that it has only one function – the prosecution of crime. It does not have discretionary programmes, and its function is demand-driven. The office has no control over the level of crime or the number of prosecutions it must bring. It also outsources much of the work to State solicitors and counsel.
This restricted the office’s ability to reduce costs, he said, adding that payments to counsel had been reduced, with the decision not to pay counsel an increase of 2.5 per cent that had been due, and to reduce their fees in 2008 by 8 per cent.
As a result, total fees to counsel were €13.7 million last year, compared to €14.2 million in 2007, though the number of prosecutions increased from 6,704 in 2007 to 7,373 in 2008. Fees also covered bail applications in the High Court and the preparatory work and hearings associated with judicial reviews.
A third of the files received last year resulted in no prosecution being taken, a slight decrease on previous years. In the majority of cases (77 per cent) this was due to insufficient evidence, with the other non-prosecution decisions ranging from use of the juvenile diversion programme to public policy reasons and delay.
A third of the remainder were disposed of in the District Court, and a further third prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit, Central Criminal or Special Criminal Courts.
Where prosecutions were brought they normally resulted in a guilty plea, with 92 per cent of all cases prosecuted on indictment leading to conviction following a guilty plea. Five per cent resulted in conviction by a jury, 2 per cent in acquittal by a jury and 1 per cent to acquittal on direction by the trial judge.
The report shows a steady increase in cases heard in the Central Criminal Court, which hears very serious cases. The total heard there in 2007 was 98, up from 85 in 2006. More than half (46) were cases of murder, compared with 31 murder cases in 2006, and most of the remainder were rape cases.
The report also shows a steady increase in cases brought by the DPP to the Court of Criminal Appeal claiming undue leniency in sentencing. This became possible when the law changed in 1994, and for the first few years the challenges to sentences were in single figures. However, last year there were 58 such challenges, up from 42 the previous year and 41 the year before. Of the 58 lodged, 47 have been heard so far.
Most were successful, with 30 applications to increase sentence granted, 14 refused, and three withdrawn or struck out.
The report also referred to last year’s introduction of a new policy on giving reasons for decisions not to prosecute to the families of people killed. However, this policy was introduced in October and very few applications had been received by the end of the year. The outcomes are expected to appear in next year’s statistics.