McDowell wants deadlines to speed up prosecutions

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell plans to introduce measures to reduce delays in the criminal justice system.

The minister’s plan, revealed following his appearance at a top-level conference on organised crime, has emerged following the Brian Fitzpatrick murder trial, which took place more than four years after two teenagers were first charged.

Minister McDowell said he is concerned about the time it takes to bring people charged with serious offences to trial, and is considering introducing deadlines and wants the gardaíi, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts Service to co-ordinate their work.

Some measures have been introduced to cut down on delays, particularly in the Central Criminal Court. Extra judges have been appointed and special sittings held.

But this week two young men, aged 15 when they were first charged with the murder of Mr Fitzpatrick, and now aged 20, walked free from court after the judge directed a not guilty verdict be returned by a jury.

More than 300 delegates attended the conference backed by the European Commission which was the first ever to discuss how public agencies and private companies can work together to tackle organised crime which the FBI estimates reaps profits of $1,000 billion globally. The conference heard the global impact of counterfeiting on companies otalled 450m a year.

While conference chairman John Abbot, former director-general of Britain’s National Criminal Intelligence Service, warned organised crime was a step ahead of Europe’s police forces, Mr McDowell said some measures taken have been successful, including Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau.

“I believe that the model of the Criminal Assets Bureau is one that could successfully be copied across the EU,” Mr McDowell said. “I believe no government or state is immune from the effect of criminal organisations, nor do I believe that any one arm of the State or any one element of society can, on its own, effectively tackle highly organised criminal groups.”

Mr McDowell urged greater communication and co-operation between business and law enforcement agencies in the fight against organised crime. Mr Abbot added: “If we are going to tackle organised crime, we are going to have to share information. We have got to do more because the criminals are running rings around us.”