McDowell urges judges to be stricter in applying bail law
Dangerous criminals are being released on bail by soft judges, the Minister for Justice claimed today.
Tánaiste Michael McDowell said that gangland figures often delay bail applications until they come before a judge who is benign on the issue.
Speaking after five murders were committed in the past week, the minister explained: “In order to get a consistent application of bail law in these serious cases, you can’t just have a lottery in which applicants wait until they find a judge that is soft on the issue. We cannot have applications in that way.
“There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that they wait until they feel they have a judge that is more benign than others.”
Mr McDowell said he will be discussing the issue with the Taoiseach and his Cabinet colleagues at the weekly Government meeting on Tuesday.
He said that 80% of criminals charged with serious crime get bail and that this situation was due to the attitude of judges because it didn’t tally with the views of the public or the Oireachtas.
“The damage that serious criminals are doing is so big that 10 years is in fact the minimum that the legislature says should be imposed in these types of cases and life is the maximum. So this notion that it is unjust to give 10 years, is in my view, a matter of attitude on the part of the people imposing them.”
He added: “I an not the Chief Justice. I am not the president of the High Court. I am not a judge myself. It is not my role to direct judges how to carry out their functions under the Constitution. They make a declaration upon appointment to uphold the law and the Constitution and I’m saying there is nothing in the law which requires, on an en mass basis, 80% at least, of these cases, that a minimum sentence prescribed by law should be departed from on the basis of that it would be unjust.
“It is not unjust in relation to a major drug pusher to send him or her away for 10 years in prison. It simply isn’t unjust and that’s what I find very, very difficult to understand.
“The result of the current application of the law is totally at variance with the clear intention of the legislature and the will of the people.
“If judges in 80% of cases consider that the minimum mandatory sentence is unjust, then it’s a matter of their attitude rather than the people’s attitude or the legislature’s attitude that needs to be looked at.”
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy agreed with Mr McDowell that some criminals who shouldn’t were getting bail. “That would be the opinion of some of our gardaí, of course,” he said.
He added: “Of course it concerns me, particularly when you see the same individuals re-appearing on fresh charges. It does cause me concern.”
Mr McDowell and Mr Conroy were speaking after Garda Reserve officers graduated at Templemore Garda Training College in Co Tipperary. The minister is due to address the issue of serious crime on tonight’s Late Late Show on RTE.
Six murders in the past week has cranked up pressure on Mr McDowell and the Government to control the frightening escalation in gangland violence.
An extra 20 officers were yesterday drafted into the Garda’s Organised Crime Unit in a bid to gather intelligence on and arrest and convict hardened criminals.
In the latest murders, criminal Gerard ’Bath’ Byrne, was shot up to five times in the head just before 9pm on Wednesday outside the Mace supermarket on Lower Mayor Street in the IFSC. He later died in the Mater Hospital.
Apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell, 20, was shot dead in a Finglas house on Tuesday morning before gunmen killed intended target drug lord, Martin ’Marlo’ Hyland.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said a culture of violence was beginning to devastate the capital city.
The Garda Commissioner said today that there was a 70% detection rate in the 62 homicides committed in Ireland during 2006.
“Go to any other jurisdiction in Europe and I would doubt if you would find a better type of detection rate,” he told reporters.
The Commissioner also reiterated appeals to the public to help solve recent murders.
“It may be something very trivial. It may be somebody who saw somebody collecting a gun and doesn’t want to become involved as a witness.”
He said eight of this year’s 23 gun crimes have been solved.
“Quite a number more will be solved. It’s quite an early stage yet. I’m confident at this moment we are very close in solving three more. In the latest shootings, you can bet that we will strive very hard and will hopefully bring people before the courts. ”
He said that the area of forensic evidence had improved in recent years.
