THE HIGH Court has quashed the conviction of a man on drink-driving charges and ordered a retrial after expressing “significant” disquiet that the man’s case was determined by a District Court judge who had been the man’s solicitor in earlier proceedings.
Mr Justice George Birmingham said, while the accused man was “largely the author of his own misfortune”, District Judge Kevin Kilrane may have found it difficult to bring “an open mind” to the case. He viewed the proceedings before the District Court with a “significant degree of disquiet”, he added.
Judge Kilrane had imposed concurrent sentences of six months’ imprisonment on the man after convicting him of various offences under the Road Traffic Acts, including driving under the influence of alcohol.
The man later brought High Court judicial review proceedings against the judge and the DPP seeking to overturn his conviction on grounds including alleged “objective bias” by Judge Kilrane.
He complained Judge Kilrane proceeded with the hearing, convicted him and sentenced him despite having been requested to recuse himself as the presiding judge. That request for recusal was made because the judge, before his appointment to the bench in May 2008 and while practising as principal solicitor with the firm Kevin P Kilrane and Co, Mohill, Co Leitrim, acted for the man in previous cases.
In his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Birmingham said the man’s approach to the matter was “singularly unimpressive” as, if he had any concerns about being tried by Judge Kilrane, he should have raised it in January 2010, when his trial date was fixed.
“His failure to do so raises suspicion that the subsequent application was prompted by nothing more than a desire to postpone the evil day,” he said.
However, he added, a reasonable observer might have decided it would have been “very difficult” for Judge Kilrane to put out of his mind his prior knowledge of the man. “The defence solicitor who has interacted with a client over a period of years acquires a unique insight into that person’s character.” In those circumstances, he would quash the conviction and remit the matter for retrial in the District Court.
Earlier, the judge noted the man was arrested in August 2009 and charged under the Road Traffic Act over alleged offences in Mohill. The prosecution was listed before Judge Kilrane in January 2010, who fixed a trial for February 2010.
Judge Kilrane had asked why the matter had not been raised earlier and rejected the application as he did not believe it was genuine.