DPP: I may face court for giving families reasons

THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said he could face court proceedings from both families of victims and suspects over his decision to give reasons why he is not prosecuting certain cases.

The director, James Hamilton, said families of victims who have died in certain circumstances might now take cases seeking a court order directing the DPP to reconsider his decision not to prosecute.

On the other hand, he said suspects in some cases could take libel proceedings against the DPP if details of the reasons are passed on from families to the media and made public.

Mr Hamilton made the comments to the Oireachtas justice committee during a discussion on his change in policy. The change is on a pilot basis and will be reviewed in 2010.

The DPP will now give explanations to families in certain death cases why charges are not taken against suspects in their case.

Up until now, the controversial policy was not to provide reasons in any cases.

Families included in the change are those who lost a loved one through murder, manslaughter, infanticide, deaths from workplace and fatal road accidents.

“What might happen is a court order ordering the DPP to reconsider, if it’s held the decision not to prosecute is irrational,” said Mr Hamilton.

He told the committee this was a risk: “I can see that, no doubt, there will be an attempt by some people to bring judicial review proceedings.”

He said his office would have to see what way the courts would decide.

He agreed with Fianna Fáil TD Noel Tracey that his office could face proceedings from suspects also.

“That is a risk we have to be aware of and guard against. It’s something that may arise.”

He said they had been advised by counsel that they would have a defence of qualified privilege as long as they acted in good faith in regards to the letters sent to the families.

He agreed with Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte that giving a letter to families was virtually the same as issuing a press release.

“I’m conscious that if one tells a family, we don’t have any effective means to prevent them putting it in public domain.”

He said there would be risks for any newspaper to publish information from the letter as it was not a “privileged communication”, protecting them from defamation lawsuits from suspects.

Mr Hamilton said that while letters may seem “cold and heartless”, they ensured greater clarity and less room for misunderstanding.

He said there could be potentially 100 letters to families in a year.

He said while the change may slow decisions down, initially he did not envisage any significant resource implications.

He said if the review proved successful, he intended to expand it to include victims of rape and sexual offences.