The GAA became embroiled in a legal row yesterday over a judge's decision to change the venue of a criminal trial because the defendant's company sponsors the Armagh county team.
Judge Randal McKay in Armagh Crown Court directed that the trial of Mr Hugh Morgan, principal of Morgan Fuels Ltd, be switched from Newry to Belfast as the prosecution's apprehension of failure to secure an impartial jury was well-founded. Now lawyers for Mr Morgan, of Dublin Road, Newry, have applied for a judicial review in the High Court in Belfast.
An application for leave to proceed with the case came before Mr Justice Kerr yesterday and was adjourned until next week.
Last year Morgan Fuels signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the Armagh County Board, and the firm's logo is prominently displayed on the team's orange jerseys.
Mr Morgan was sent for trial last August on 81 charges of evasion of customs duty on motor oil and three charges of evasion of VAT. The magistrate directed that the trial should take place at Armagh Crown Court, sitting in Newry. But the prosecution later applied for a change of venue on the grounds that, as Mr Morgan's company was a major sponsor of Gaelic football in the area, the members of the jury panel might be prejudiced.
In his ruling Judge McKay said given that Morgan Fuels sponsored a very popular sport, with many players and many more supporters and their families living in the area, "the Crown's apprehension of failure to secure an impartial jury in this particular case is well-founded. Accordingly, I accede to the Crown application and direct that the case should be tried in Belfast".
The application for judicial review seeks an order quashing Judge McKay's decision on the grounds that he had no power to make it in the absence of clear evidence and therefore it was a decision which no reasonably informed tribunal could have made.
Mr Morgan's solicitor, Mr Norville Connolly, said his client would also be relying on the ground that the application for a change of venue was granted on the "naked assertion that a jury panel comprising Gaelic football players and supporters, among others, may not be impartial".
Court papers stated there was no evidence to justify this apprehension and Mr Connolly added: "The suggestion that people who play Gaelic sports or support them are more likely to be partial and prejudiced jurors than other groups of people is manifestly untenable."