JUST watching the BBC and it’s constantly reporting that today marks the start of the “first ‘supergrass’ trial in Belfast for 25 years”. It’s not. No-one seems to remember that just four years ago, this happened – and it wasn’t exactly a roaring success. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
More on the ongoing legal aid fees dispute. UTV reports that just 18 out of 500 law firms in Northern Ireland have said they are willing to work under the disputed new pay rates. A Department of Justice spokesman said: “Copies of the list of firms willing to undertake criminal legal aid work is available to all defendants seeking legal representation from court offices. “Copies of the list have also been provided to the Prison Service for clients on remand without …
In the Belfast Telegraph Liam Clarke considers, at face value, the “absurd” and “disingenuous” Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ call for an independent, international, truth commission. From the Belfast Telegraph article Trading truth for justice is a tough call. In this case, a lot will depend on the quality of the information given by the IRA members. In the case of the Disappeared, the evidence came long after the deaths, but many people will consider the trade-off worthwhile because it allowed …
The furore over Mary McArdle’s appointment as special advisor to the new Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin is showing no sign of going away. As Pete mentioned below McArdle has made a comment in the Andersonstown News expressing regret that Mary Travers was killed: regret but no apology and certainly no repentance which would as Jim Allister and others have pointed out, have to mean naming the other members of her murder gang: something her oath to the overall murder …
As the BBC report, the President of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, Brian Speers, has called on the NI Justice Minister to make the resolution of the legal aid fees dispute “the day one priority for the minister when the assembly is reconvened.” The report also notes The Northern Ireland Court Service confirmed that 36 solicitors’ firms in Northern Ireland have stopped work on 60 cases in the past three weeks. And from the UTV report Mr Speers added: “The Minister needs …
The dispute between the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, David Ford, and solicitors over cuts to legal aid fees in Crown Court Proceedings seems to be intensifying. The Belfast Telegraph reports Pearse MacDermott, from the [Solicitors Criminal Bar Association (SCBA)], said: “Recent action has been taken as it is felt that the rates of remuneration introduced will jeopardise access to justice, particularly in more complicated and serious criminal cases.” Cases can spend months being heard in magistrates’ courts before they are passed to …
Earlier this week the BBC reported On Wednesday, defence solicitors signalled they will not be there to represent clients facing charges up to murder when they pass to the crown court. With barristers depending on these lawyers for their instructions, it means any legal representation is highly unlikely unless a solution is reached. And quoted a statement from the Bar Council In a statement, the Bar Council said: “The Bar acknowledges the well founded concerns of solicitors that these rules …
The BBC reports on the sentencing of Gerry McGeough – who was found guilty in February of the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier, then working as a postman, now DUP councillor Sammy Brush, in 1981. From the BBC report Former IRA man Gerry McGeough has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of an off-duty UDR soldier 30 years ago. McGeough, 52, shot Sammy Brush, now a DUP councillor, in Aughnacloy in June 1981. He was arrested in …
In March 2010 the then-Criminal Justice Minister Paul Goggins announced a “comprehensive review [], including a full public consultation” of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 provisions for non-jury trials “before it next falls to be renewed in July 2011” – those provisions had previously been extended in 2009. Today the NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, announced that he is “laying before Parliament an Order to extend the Non-Jury trial provisions for a further period of two years”. From the NI Secretary of State’s …
Pete has a blog on McGeough’s conviction for the attempted murder of Samuel Brush below and has also covered the suggestion that Sinn Fein might use its influence to try to help McGeough. Today the Belfast telegraph has a piece about Mr. Brush’s reaction to the trial and conviction. Brush has met Michelle Gildernew and says he was touched by the gesture of her coming to see him and said “I have spoken to her on several occasions since she …
Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew, MP, MLA, was quick to offer her support following Gerry McGeough’s conviction on attempted murder charges from 1981, and according to the transcribed Belfast Telegraph report on Newshound it wasn’t the first offer the party made. Gerry McGeough has claimed that Sinn Féin held secret talks with Gerry McGeough in which it pledged to use its influence to prevent his imprisonment if he stopped criticising the party. Speaking minutes before his conviction for attempted murder, McGeough said …
The BBC reports the verdict in the trial of Gerry McGeough for the attempted murder of a part-time UDR soldier [who was working as a postman at the time of the attack] in June 1981. From the BBC report Gerry McGeough, who was arrested in 2007, was convicted of trying to kill Samuel Brush, who is now a DUP councillor in Dungannon. McGeough was also found guilty of possessing firearms with intent and holding IRA membership. Vincent McAnespie, who was also standing trial, …
Confirmation that the UK government is to provide an additional £200million to help the PSNI combat the continuing, and increasing, terrorist threat here – over four years with £57.1m in 2011-12, £53.3m in 2012-13, £62.4m in 2013-14 and £26.7m in the final year. And the BBC report carries these comments from the NI Justice Minister, the Alliance Party’s David Ford. David Ford said he had worked closely with the Chief Constable “to ensure that the needs of Northern Ireland are recognised in …
Previously adjourned, for the fifth time, in August last year, the Irish News reports that the inquest into the 2006 death of former senior Sinn Féin figure Denis Donaldson has been adjourned again – a further pre-inquest hearing will be held on May 5. From the Irish News report It is understood a key witness in the investigation has been taken into protective custody after allegedly revealing where the gun used to kill Mr Donaldson was buried. The coroner told [Garda Superintendent Michael …
The BBC reports that the prosecution counsel in the retrial of Gerard Mackin for the murder of 36-year-old Edward Burns, who was shot dead in west Belfast in March 2007, has told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that the state would not be proceeding with the charges. The retrial was ordered in July 2010 when the Appeal Court in Dublin ruled that evidence taken in a Belfast court, including that of the chief prosecution witness, Mr Damien O’Neill, had not …
The ongoing saga of “prominent Co Tyrone republican” Brian Arthurs’ legal challenge to the ruling that he and his wife should stand trial in a non-jury court, on charges of converting criminal property and obtaining a money transfer by deception, received an update on Friday. A panel of High Court judges had rejected Arthurs’ legal challenge in June this year. On Friday the Irish News reported that “those judges [had] agreed to certify two questions to be put before the [UK] Supreme Court on points …
The BBC reports the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the Irish government in the case taken by Maze escapee Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane following the collapse of his trial on charges relating to the kidnap of Don Tidey in 1983. The iol report notes part of the ruling The Court ruled in favour of the former IRA commander in the Maze and found the 10-and-a-half-year wait from his arrest in 1998 until he walked free was excessive. The ECHR ordered the …
From Mick’s linked chapter on Northern Ireland in Tony Blair’s memoirs [pdf file] Such tactical manoeuvres were the warp and woof of the Northern Ireland peace process. Again at the last minute, after the negotiation over the St Andrews declaration of October 2006, up popped the issue of what oath would be sworn by those taking office in the reconstructed Assembly and Executive. All manner of permutations were gone through to find a mutually acceptable formula. Naturally the DUP wanted …
In the Belfast Telegraph Brian Rowan picks up on NI Police Ombudsman Al Hutchison’s comments following the publication of the Claudy report. Al Hutchison was, let’s not forget, repeating himself… From the Belfast Telegraph article The Ombudsman has more than a hundred historical cases sitting on his desk — work he estimates will take fifty years to complete. And if this is left in his office and left with the Historical Enquiries Team, then the reality is that many people will never have their …
An iol report notes that the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin has quashed the murder conviction of Belfast man Gerard Mackin and has ordered his retrial. From the iol report Mackin 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 time that anyone was convicted in a Dublin court for a murder committed in the north under a cross-border anti-terrorist law …
