The Director of Public Prosecutions has moved to set aside a number of as yet unheard prosecutions for buggery offences following a recent Supreme Court decision that such charges cannot be brought in relation to offences committed prior to 1993.
The DPP has brought judicial review proceedings seeking orders in two separate cases concerning two men awaiting trial for a number of sex offences, including buggery.
The DPP wants orders quashing the return to trial concerning buggery offences and declarations the remainder of the return to trial is valid, with the effect the trials could proceed on the non-buggery offences. The judicial review comes after a Supreme Court decision that, when repealing the offence of buggery “between persons” in 1993, the Oireachtas failed to enact the necessary saving measures to allow prosecutions for such common law offences committed prior to 1993.