Sir, – I was initially intrigued and then utterly gobsmacked on reading the “Gubu Diary” (Weekend Review, September 29th).
I have the dubious distinction of being the first person taken across the Border and then handed back under the provisions of the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act 1976. In 1982 I was on trial in Belfast, charged with two murders, before Judge Hutton. The RUC case against me was based solely on “verbal admissions” that I had allegedly made. It was my word against the word of four detectives – appalling vista, etc – sounds familiar!
On the advice of my senior counsel, James McSparran, the case was moved South, and evidence was heard in the Special Criminal Court, Green Street under the provisions of the Criminal Jurisdiction Act. Judge Hutton attended and Judge Liam Hamilton, presided and asked questions on his behalf. My solicitor was Pat McCartan, now Judge McCartan.
A senior counsel had been instructed to lodge a writ of habeus corpus on my behalf the minute I crossed the Border, this on the advice of the late Seán MacBride. The senior counsel didn’t do so, nor did he appear at my trial hearing. At very short notice the late Seamus Sorahan made a valiant but unsuccessful application to the High Court on my behalf, claiming that I had been unlawfully detained. To my utter dismay and that of my legal team I was then sent back North and handed over to the tender mercies of the RUC at Aughnacloy that evening. A legal precedent had been set. The fact that I was acquitted of both charges – Justice Hutton “could not be certain of the accuracy of some of the police notes of what Smyth had allegedly told them” – is not why I write.
All of this occurred two months before the “meeting” in July 1982 described in Jim Kirby’s “Gubu Diary”: “The nub of it was that Haughey wasn’t going to operate the Criminal Jurisdiction Act”.
In fact, Charles Haughey’s government had already operated the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act, and the facts outlined above are a matter of public record. The Act had been used – against me! – Yours, etc,