DPP: No immediate plans to extend ‘no prosecutions’ explanations

The Director of Public Prosecutions has no immediate plans to extend the current system to explain decisions not to prosecute.

In 2008, the DPP’s office adopted a new policy of giving victims’ families reasons for decisions not to prosecute in fatal cases. Since then, the office has dealt with 41 requests for reasons, the DPP’s annual report shows, including eight last year.

The expansion of the project to other types of cases had been widely expected since late last year when the EU adopted a directive that gives crime victims the right to receive information on any decision not to prosecute a suspect in relation to a variety of crimes. The directive must be transposed into Irish law by 2015.

The directive covers most cases, with some exceptions. Offences covered by the rule include, among others, assault, robberies, burglaries, harassment, rape, child sexual abuse and murder.

In the foreword to the DPP’s annual report, published yesterday, Ms Loftus writes that because of her office’s limited resources and the need to fully prepare for the transposition of the directive into Irish law: “I do not anticipate an expansion of the current reasons project in fatal cases to other areas of decision-making in the near future.”

She added: “I will review the situation when the implications of giving effect to the directive for both ourselves and the Garda Síochána have been fully analysed.”

State lawyers were asked for a decision on whether to prosecute in files relating to 11,942 suspects and a decision was made not to pursue a case in 4,674 cases.

A breakdown of the reasons not to prosecute shows that in 79% of cases it was due to insufficient evidence. Other reasons included “public interest” (113 cases), delay in 36 cases and 192 in which the injured party withdrew a complaint.

Ms Loftus said she shares judges’ concerns that the backlog in the Court of Criminal Appeal means that undue leniency reviews and other appeals against conviction and sentence have been considerably delayed. A referendum is due next month on setting up a standalone Court of Appeal.

If the DPP’s office believes a sentence imposed by a trial judge was unduly lenient, it can apply to the Court of Criminal Appeal to have the sentence reviewed. The report shows that it did so in 21 cases last year, compared with 55 cases in 2011 and 54 cases in 2010.

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard 28 such appeals last year; 15 were successful, 10 were refused and three were struck out or withdrawn.