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Neutral Citation No. [2008] NICA 35 Ref: KER7232

Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered: 21/7/08

(subject to editorial corrections)*

IN HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND

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ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN

NORTHERN IRELAND

QUEENS BENCH DIVISION

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IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY JOHN BOYLE FOR

JUDICIAL REVIEW

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Before Kerr LCJ, Campbell LJ and Girvan LJ

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KERR LCJ

Introduction

[1] This is an appeal from the judgment of Weatherup J whereby he

dismissed the appellant’s application for judicial review of the decision of the

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland refusing to award compensation to the

appellant under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and declining to

exercise his discretion to grant compensation under an extra statutory ex

gratia scheme.

Background

[2] The appellant was convicted on 14 October, 1977 at Belfast City

Commission before His Honour Judge Brown QC, sitting without a jury, of

one count of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger

life, contrary to section 14 of the Firearms Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 and

one count of membership of a proscribed organisation contrary to section

19(1) (a) of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973. He was

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sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on the first count and to two years’

imprisonment on the second. The sentences were ordered to run

concurrently. A suspended sentence of two years’ imprisonment imposed in

respect of an earlier conviction was activated and ordered to be served

consecutively to the concurrent sentences of ten and two years’

imprisonment. On 13 January 1978, the Court of Appeal dismissed the

appellant’s appeal against conviction and sentence.

[3] The allegation against Mr Boyle was that he had taken part in an IRA

gun attack on police officers in Franklin Street, Belfast, on 27 May 1976. The

case against him was based exclusively on admissions, said to have been

made by him to two police officers during interviews that took place on 8 and

9 March 1977, to the effect that he had been giving cover to the gunman who

had fired on the police officers. He was recorded as having denied that he

had been involved in the actual firing of shots.

[4] Mr Boyle has always disputed that he made any admissions. He

claimed that the police officers had written down things that he had not said.

These claims were denied by the police. During cross examination in the

course of the trial the two officers who had made a record of the fifth

interview asserted vigorously that the notes of all interviews conducted by

them (including interview five) had been made at the time that the interviews

took place. They denied that notes had been prepared after the interview of

the appellant. Judge Brown expressed himself as entirely satisfied of the

truthfulness and honesty of the detectives and forthrightly rejected the

appellant’s claims that he had not made the relevant confessions.

[5] In April 2001 the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the

appellant’s convictions to the Court of Appeal, exercising its statutory powers

under Part II of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. The reference was prompted

by new evidence that had been made available by scientific developments in

electrostatic detection apparatus (ESDA) testing techniques. Kim Harry

Hughes, a forensic scientist, had provided a report on the ESDA examination

of the interview notes.

[6] The case was heard as a fresh appeal. In an ex tempore judgment

delivered on 29 April 2003, Carswell LCJ held that the convictions were

unsafe and they were duly quashed. He identified the fifth interview as that

during which the relevant admissions were made. The admissions relied on

by the Crown during the trial were contained in the notes of that interview

and, according to the