Man who was jailed for crime he did not commit claims gardaí failed to disclose information at trial

Dublin man Declan Tynan, pictured, had a conviction for violent disorder quashed in April 2018 after he had served 11 months of a three-year sentence. Picture: Paddy Cummins

Gardaí failed to disclose important information to the defence team of a man who spent nearly a year in prison for a crime he did not commit, it has been alleged.

Dublin man Declan Tynan had a conviction for violent disorder quashed in April 2018 after he had served 11 months of a three-year sentence.

The Criminal Court of Appeal has now heard it took a further three years for Mr Tynan’s defence to uncover important communications between gardaí during the investigation, which was not disclosed to the defence during Mr Tynan’s initial trial in 2016.

Senior counsel Michael O’Higgins, acting for Mr Tynan, highlighted communication had between investigating Garda Ciaran Loughrey and Garda Patrick McAvinue, whose identification of Mr Tynan had secured his conviction. 

Garda McAvinue had no official role in the investigation before that formal identification took place in March 2013.

The initial investigation was focused on a 2012 incident at Ladbrokes bookmakers, which saw two men stabbed.

Mr Tynan’s defence contends the new evidence of prior communications, in which possible suspects were put to Garda McAvinue, contradicts his assertion at the 2016 trial in which he had stated he had no knowledge of any of the suspects, and had not viewed the relevant CCTV stills of the crime, prior to his meeting Garda Loughrey and formally identifying Declan Tynan and two others as being the culprits.

'A scream-aloud issue'

Mr O’Higgins said the fact prior communication had taken place between Garda Loughrey and Garda McAvinue and was not disclosed to the defence amounted to “a scream-aloud issue”, one which meant the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court had been “very, very seriously misled".

Mr Tynan, who has consistently maintained his innocence and refused to plead guilty at trial in contrast to his two co-defendants, is seeking a certificate of miscarriage of justice, which if granted would allow him to sue the State for compensation for the time he had spent in prison.

He had been sentenced to four years, with the last year suspended, in January 2017 for allegedly taking part in the assault with a short-bladed knife which saw two men stabbed at the Tallaght bookmakers in December 2012.

Mr Tynan was eventually released and his conviction was quashed after a second man came forward in September 2017 and swore an affidavit stating he had heard father-of-two Mr Tynan was serving a prison sentence for a crime the second man had in fact been responsible for.

At Mr Tynan’s initial trial, the testimony of Garda McAvinue, who had been consulted by Garda Loughrey on the matter due to his familiarity with the area of Dublin 8, where the perpetrators were believed to be from, was the sole means by which Mr Tynan was convicted, a fact acknowledged by Garda Loughrey.

List of possible suspects

Mr O’Higgins said the defence only became aware in 2021, three years after Mr Tynan was released, that Garda Loughrey had in fact generated a Garda intelligence bulletin on January 16, 2013, using CCTV footage of the stabbing, and he had forwarded that bulletin to Garda McAvinue on January 19, asking did he “have any idea” who any of the people in stills of the footage were, together with a list of possible suspects.

Mr O’Higgins said the defence only learned in November 2021, nine years after the initial crime, that Garda McAvinue had replied to Garda Loughrey two days later and positively identified one of Mr Tynan’s co-accused, Sean Kenny, from the footage, but had made no reference to Mr Tynan in that communication.

He then met with Garda Loughrey in person later that day.

Facing cross-examination, Garda Loughrey said he did not know why Garda McAvinue had not identified Mr Tynan to begin with.

He agreed that during the initial trial, he had testified that he had not shared the CCTV footage of the stabbing with anyone prior to the formal identification, despite his having sent the stills to Garda McAvinue in advance of their initial meeting.

He said as far as he was concerned, the initial contact with Garda McAvinue was a “confidential internal communication”, and that such messages were “not disclosed as a matter of course”.

The case continues.