A Dublin man has appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal against his conviction and eight-year sentence on charges of unlawful possession of firearms with intent to endanger life.
Mark Desmond had also been charged with the double murder of two young men, whose bodies were found in the Grand Canal, but those charges were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions at the outset of his trial.
The appeal concluded yesterday and Mr Justice McCracken, presiding, with Mr Justice Murphy and Mr Justice Herbert, reserved the court's decision.
Having sacked his former legal team, Desmond (29), of Lally Road, Ballyfermot, represented himself at his trial which opened in the Central Criminal Court in November 2002. The trial ran for 16 days and ended with Desmond being convicted on December 12th, 2002, of the unlawful possession of three shotguns, one rifle and one 12-gauge shotgun cartridge with intent to endanger life at Lally Road between October 1st, 1999, and February 17th, 2000.
During the trial Desmond told the jury the DPP was not proceeding with two charges against him of the murder of Darren Carey (20) and Patrick Murray (19). Both men were shot in the head in suspected drug-related killings and their bodies dumped in the Grand Canal, Karneystown, Co Kildare, between December 19th and January 10th, 2000.
Presenting Desmond's appeal against conviction yesterday, Mr Paul Coffey SC, with Ms Ivana Bacik, said it could be argued that a lot of matters arose in the appeal because of the way Desmond conducted his defence. If Desmond had been legally advised, those matters would not have "poisoned the well".
It was very clear the trial "went off the rails to a very large extent", and Desmond was at a considerable disadvantage over how the case ran, Mr Coffey said. Matters which would not normally have come to the jury's knowledge had unfortunately percolated into the evidence. This included evidence of drug dealing and a stabbing, which Desmond himself elicited when questioning his cousin, Jonathan Desmond, a critical witness.
Mr Coffey said there were 12 grounds of appeal with several grounds relating to the refusal to adjourn the trial and the changing of the indictment.
Opposing the appeal, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the DPP, said the appeal court should look at the circumstances in which Mr Justice Carney had refused to adjourn Desmond's trial. Ten minutes before it was due to start, Desmond had sacked his legal team, causing reasonable suspicion in the mind of the judge.
Desmond also sought to make claims before the jury panel in the courtroom that there was "corruption" over the dropping of the murder charges against him and their substitution with firearms charges.
The following day, Desmond had sought to have the case thrown out because of prejudicial material, which he himself had thrown out in relation to the murder charges, counsel said.