A TEENAGE boy in the care of the Health Service Executive who is charged with stealing a block of ice cream, has brought a legal challenge to a District Court judge’s refusal to grant him legal aid.
District Judge Murrough Connellan refused to grant legal aid after saying he believed the State should not be put to the cost of providing legal aid in such a matter, the High Court heard yesterday.
A solicitor for the boy said Judge Connellan had also said it was time the High Court listened to the District Court in such matters and that it stopped spending the State’s money in such a way.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was before Judge Connellan at a sitting of Bray District Court on January 9th last. He is charged with stealing a block of ice cream worth €5.95 from a Centra shop in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, contrary to section 4 of the Criminal Justice Theft and Fraud Act 2001, an indictable offence.
In an affidavit, his solicitor Michelle Finan said Judge Connellan was asked on January 9th to adjourn the matter and to grant a legal aid certificate to cover the boy’s costs as he lacked the means to obtain legal representation from his own resources.
Ms Finan said an order requiring the Garda to provide the boy’s solicitors with statements concerning the charge was also sought.
Ms Finan said the judge, in refusing legal aid, said it would cost the State a substantial sum, about €1,000, to cover the costs of providing statements and to pay the boy’s legal costs.
The judge also refused to grant an order directing gardaí to provide statements on the matter, Ms Finan added.
Ms Finan said Judge Connellan, in refusing to grant legal aid, had acted in breach of the boy’s constitutional rights and outside the judge’s own jurisdiction.
The boy now faces the prospect of having no legal representation when his case is decided upon by the court, she said.
In his High Court proceedings against Judge Connellan and the Director of Public Prosecutions, the boy is seeking an order quashing the judge’s refusal to grant legal aid. The boy also wants declarations that the refusal to grant legal aid or give any adequate consideration to his application was unlawful.
The further prosecution of the criminal charge against him, where he has no means to pay his legal costs, breaches his rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, he claims.
Leave to bring the challenge was granted on an ex parte (one side only basis) by Mr Justice Michael Peart, who put a stay on the criminal proceedings involving the boy until the High Court action has been concluded.
He adjourned the case to March.