Criminal appeal cases to be reheard after High Court judge falls ill in Spain

A number of cases before the Court of Criminal Appeal, including that taken by the State against the sentence given to sex attacker Anthony Lyons, are to be reheard because a High Court judge has been taken ill.

Chief Justice Susan Denham yesterday told the court Mr Justice Michael Hanna was seriously ill and would probably require a lengthy period of convalescence.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Justice Hanna and his family at this time,” she said.

He fell ill while on holiday in Spain and is expected to be on leave for a number of months.

The chief justice said Mr Justice Hanna sat on the Court of Criminal Appeal – which comprises a Supreme Court judge and two High Court judges – in a number of recent cases where judgment was reserved and no final decision has been given. In these circumstances, she said, the most appropriate course of action was to reconstitute the relevant courts and rehear the appeals. It is understood nine cases will be reheard.

“We are arranging extra sittings of the Court of Criminal Appeal to meet this situation, so that the cases may be listed expeditiously,” Mrs Justice Denham said.

“As all the preparatory papers in these appeals are ready and available to the court, it is anticipated that the appeals will be dealt with promptly.”

She added that she and the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, would schedule the rehearings as soon as possible.

Among the cases affected is an appeal taken by the State against what was in effect a six- month sentence given in July 2012 to Anthony Lyons, a businessman who was convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman as she walked home.

In November last year the Court of Criminal Appeal found that the sentence was “unduly lenient” but reserved the reasons for its judgment and later reserved its decision on what sentence should be imposed in its place.

Other cases that may have to be reheard include that of former priest and serial child abuser Tony Walsh, formerly of North Circular Road, Dublin, who is appealing against separate sentences of 16 years and 15 months imposed on him for the rape and sexual abuse of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s. The Court of Criminal Appeal reserved judgment in the case in July of last year and Mrs Justice Denham said the presiding judge in the case wished to have it reheard as soon as possible.

The case brought by Dublin criminal Brian Rattigan, who is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, may also have to be reheard.

Rattigan is serving a life sentence in Portlaoise prison having been found guilty by a jury in December 2009 of stabbing 21-year-old Declan Gavin to death outside an Abrakebabra fast-food restaurant in Crumlin on August 25th, 2001.

The appeal court was yesterday able to fix February 14th for the rehearing of the appeal against conviction brought by brothers Warren and Jeffrey Dumbrell, who were jailed for life after being convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of the murder of Christopher Cawley at Tyrone Place flats in Inchicore.