THE COURT of Criminal Appeal in Dublin yesterday quashed the conviction of the only person convicted by a Dublin court for a murder in Northern Ireland.
The court ordered a retrial for Belfast man Gerard Mackin and remanded him in custody after ruling that crucial prosecution evidence had not been properly proven in the court of trial.
Mr Mackin became the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court for a murder in Northern Ireland when convicted by the Special Criminal Court in November 2008. He was jailed for life after he was found guilty of the murder of Belfast taxi driver Eddie Burns in the city in 2007. It was the first such conviction in a Dublin court under a cross-Border anti-terrorist law introduced in 1976.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe, ruled that evidence taken in a Belfast court had not been properly proven at the Special Criminal Court.
The three judges of the Special Criminal Court travelled to Belfast in October 2008 to hear evidence taken by a Belfast judge, including the evidence of the chief prosecution witness, Damien O’Neill, who was himself shot and injured during the incident but survived.
Gerard Mackin was found guilty of the murder of Edward Burns, a 36-year-old father of five, of Prospect Park, Belfast, at Bog Meadow, Falls Road, Belfast on March 12th, 2007. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Damien O’Neill, the possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and causing serious harm to Mr O’Neill on the same date.
He was jailed for 15 years on the attempted murder charge, 10 years for possession of a revolver with intent to endanger life, and 12 years for causing serious harm to Mr O’Neill. The court ordered all the sentences to run concurrently.
Mr Mackin (28), a native of the Whiterock area of Belfast, with an address at Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin, opted for trial in the Republic under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976, which allows suspects to be tried in the Republic for alleged offences in Britain or Northern Ireland.
The Court of Criminal Appeal heard that although the Special Criminal Court had heard the evidence taken in Belfast and had received a transcript of that evidence, the prosecution had not properly proved that this was admissible at the Dublin trial.
Mr Justice Hardiman said the material provided to the Belfast court was not part of the trial, and was not produced at the trial. He said what is presented to a judge outside a public court is not evidence in itself and must be read into the record of the court.
He said the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act made it easy for the prosecution to prove evidence taken in Northern Ireland – but no attempt was made to prove it in the Special Criminal Court.
He said the nature of a criminal trial was that it was a “unitary phenomenon’’, and was not composed of different elements heard in different places. He said it was difficult to accept that any part of Mackin’s trial took place in Belfast, and it was impossible to accept that the judges of the Special Criminal Court were sitting as the Special Criminal Court when they attended the Belfast hearing.
The judges had said they were observing the taking of the evidence by the Belfast judge, but were not taking part. He said there was clearly scope for the taking of evidence outside the jurisdiction, but such evidence must be for presentation to the court, which must then decide on its admissibility.
He said in the “somewhat perplexing course of the trial’’ the State had swayed this way and that on the question of proving the material taken in the North.
The court quashed the conviction after hearing submissions from prosecution counsel Tom O’Connell and defence counsel Paul McDermott.