A detective garda facing perjury charges arising out of the prosecution of Colm Murphy for his alleged role in the 1998 Omagh bombing has lost a High Court move to stop his trial, due to open next October.
Det Garda Liam Donnelly had claimed his right to a fair trial had been prejudiced because of a number of factors, including the non-availability of some evidence which a forensic expert had given to Mr Murphy's trial related to that expert's analysis of Garda notes of an interview with Mr Murphy.
Having carried out an examination of certain documents, the expert had testified that a page of a memorandum was falsified. One of the original documents on which he had based that conclusion is now missing and this was among the reasons why Det Garda Donnelly contended he could not receive a fair trial. Det Garda Donnelly claimed the delay in bringing the prosecution has caused him prejudice, stress and anxiety.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill rejected Det Garda Donnelly's application. The judge said the original document referred to was a defence exhibit and had remained in the custody of the Special Criminal Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal until judgment was given in Mr Murphy's appeal in January 2005.
The prosecution had no access to the document and had made every effort to retrieve it after the Murphy appeal judgment, the judge said. There were several other documents which showed the same thing and it would be up to the trial judge to rule on the missing document.
Mr Justice O'Neill found there was no failure by the gardaí, DPP or the Chief Prosecution Solicitor to discharge their duty to seek to preserve all available evidence. There was no evidence that Det Garda Donnelly would not get a fair trial because of the missing document, he ruled. The court has fixed Mr Murphy's trial for January 11th next, and remanded him on continuing bail until then.