Cullen v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

JurisdictionNorthern Ireland
Judgment Date01 January 1999
Date01 January 1999
CourtCourt of Appeal (Northern Ireland)
(C.A., N.I.)
Cullen
and
Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

- Police - Whether procedural mistake giving rise to common law right of action in tort - Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1987, s. 15, 15 (8).

On 17 October, 1989 the plaintiff, C., was arrested on suspicion of having been concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism. He was taken to a police station and held in custody until 23 October. During C.'s detention he received only one unsupervised visit from his solicitor, the police thereafter delaying access or allowing short visits supervised by a police officer. Under s. 15(8) of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1987, a police officer had power to authorise delay in complying with a suspect's request to see his solicitor if certain conditions were satisfied. However, s. 15 conferred no power to authorise delay in anticipation of a suspect's request. C. was interviewed a number of times and although initially remaining silent, on 20 October he made admissions and a written statement. He was subsequently charged with the offence of withholding information in respect of a murder to which he pleaded guilty on 8...

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2 cases
  • Cullen v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
    • United Kingdom
    • House of Lords
    • 10 July 2003
    ...a civil case. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against this conclusion: Cullen v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary [1999] NI 237. III. THE LEGISLATIVE (a) Each of the decisions to deny the appellant access to a solicitor was anticipatory in nature in the sense of bein......
  • Cullen v. Northern Ireland (Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary),
    • Canada
    • 10 July 2003
    ...a civil case. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against this conclusion: Cullen v. Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary [1999] NI 237. III. THE LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT. [3] The legislative context must now be explained. The long title of the 1987 Act describes it as, among oth......
1 books & journal articles
  • The House of Lords and the Northern Ireland Conflict – A Sequel
    • United Kingdom
    • Wiley The Modern Law Review No. 69-3, May 2006
    • 1 May 2006
    ... ... ) 112 LQR 237.For a recent survey by the Chief Justice of Israel, see A. Barak, PurposiveInterpr ... ), Begl ey and Mc Willia ms (1 997), Cullen (200 3) and McClean (2005) ; and four deal ... O’ Hara v Chief Constab le of the Royal Ulster Con stabulary 86 is a case very similar t ... ga ve short shrift to t he Chief Constable’ s argument that an o rder to arrest the ap ... Chief Constable of the Royal Ulste r Constabulary , ex par te Begley and McWilliams , 101 where ... ...