(Northern Ireland) The appellant had been injured in a gunfight with a policemen. He was later convicted for attempted murder, but escaped and fled the country. He applied for asylum in Sweden saying that he was a member of the IRA. He now appealed against a subsequent conviction for membership of the IRA which had been based on the evidence of that application.
Held: There was no explicit requirement that information disclosed in such an application remain confidential: ‘Neither of the specific provisions of the Directive that the appellant has prayed in aid supports the proposition that its overall purpose was to encourage candour by ensuring general confidentiality for information supplied in support of an application for asylum. The Directive in fact makes precise provision for the circumstances in which confidentiality should be maintained. It would therefore be clearly inconsistent with the framework of the Directive to imply a general charter of confidentiality for such material.’ and 2Neither the terms of the Directive nor the circumstances in which material would have been dealt with, if obtained in the United Kingdom, impinged on the manner in which the trial judge was required to approach his decision under article 76 of PACE. There was nothing that was intrinsic to that material nor in the circumstances in which it was provided that would support the conclusion that its admission would have such an adverse effect on the fairness of the proceedings that the court ought not to admit it. The judge was plainly right to refuse the application.’
Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Kerr, Lord Hughes, Lord Toulson, Lord Hodge
[2015] 1 WLR 4612, UKSC 2013/0248, [2015] UKSC 62
Bailii Summary, Bailii, SC, SC Summary
Council Directive 2005/85/EC 22, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1986 76
Northern Ireland
Citing:
Appeal from – Mcgeough, R v CANI 7-May-2013
The defendant appealed against his convictions, inter alia, for membership of a proscribed organisation. He said that the judge should not have admitted in evidence his application for asylum in Sweden which had included his declaration of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Evidence, European
Updated: 05 January 2022; Ref: scu.553629