swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Northern Ireland - From: 1970 To: 1979
This page lists 9 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.
Reilly (J M) v Belfast Corporation [1970] NI 68
1970
Northern Ireland
1 Citers
Devlin v Armstrong [1971] LR NI 13
1971
CANI
Lord MacDermott LCJ
Crime, Northern Ireland
The defendant faced a charge of riot. He said that he had held an honest and reasonable belief that the police were about to behave unlawfully. Held: The Court assumed that the accused did honestly and reasonably so believe, but held that for a number of reasons it constituted no defence in the circumstances: it was not questioned that in other circumstances it might be the correct criterion.
1 Citers
McFarlane v McFarlane; CANI 1972 - [1972] NI 59
Regina v Foxford; CANI 1974 - [1974] NI 181
Regina v Hetherington [1975] NI 164
1975
CANI
Lowry LCJ
Northern Ireland, Crime
Lowry LCJ discussed the rule against the admission of evidence obtained under mistreatment and said: "It is not for the defence to prove but for the prosecution to disprove beyond reasonable doubt in relation to each accused that he was not subject even to any degrading treatment in order to induce him to make a statement on which the Crown rely . . the decision under section 6(2) must be based solely on how the statement is proved to have been obtained and not on whether it was true."
1 Citers
Attorney-General for Northern Ireland's Reference [1976] 2 All ER 937
1976
Northern Ireland, Crime
Regina v Thompson [1977] NI 74
1977
Sir Robert Lowry CJ
Northern Ireland
The court considered the procedure of a criminal trial by judge alone in Northern Ireland: "[The judge] has no jury to charge and therefore will not err if he does not state every relevant legal proposition and review every fact and argument on either side. His duty is not as in a jury trial to instruct laymen as to every relevant aspect of the law or to give (perhaps at the end of a long trial) a full and balanced picture of the facts for decision by others. His task is to reach conclusions and give reasons to support his view and, preferably, to notice any difficult or unusual points of law in order that if there is an appeal it can be seen how his view of the law informs his approach to the facts." Leave to appeal was refused.
1 Citers
Regina v Fitzpatrick [1977] NI 20
1977
CANI
Lowry LCJ
Northern Ireland, Crime
The court considered the defence of duress: "A person may become associated with a sinister group of men with criminal objectives and coercive methods of ensuring that their lawless enterprises are carried out and thereby voluntarily expose himself to illegal compulsion, whether or not the group is or becomes a proscribed organisation . . if a person voluntarily exposes and submits himself, as the appellant did, to illegal compulsion, he cannot rely on the duress to which he has voluntarily exposed himself as an excuse either in respect of the crimes he commits against his will or in respect of his continued but unwilling association with those capable of exercising upon him the duress which he calls in aid."
1 Citers
Regina (Caherty) v Belfast Justices [1978] NI 94
1978
Northern Ireland, Criminal Practice
Section 7 of the 1945 Act provides that a person charged in Northern Ireland with the commission of indictable offence may be proceeded against in any county or place in which (a) he is apprehended; (b) he is in custody in relation to the offence; or (c) he appears to answer a summons lawfully issued charging the offence. In such circumstances the offence will be deemed to have been committed in the relevant county or place. Held: The section conferred the necessary jurisdiction to proceed.
Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 791)
1 Citers