Kennedy, Brian: In the matter of an application by Brian Kennedy, Philip Magee, Brian G McCartney, John Coyle, Patricia Smyth, Barry J Macdonald, Seamus Treacy, Kieran Mallon and Karen Quinlivan for Judicial Review
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Campbell LJ |
| Judgment Date | 13 April 2000 |
| Neutral Citation | [2001] NICA 18 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 13 April 2000 |
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Neutral Citation No. [2001] NICA 18
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)
IN HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND
_____
THE QUEEN
v
MICHAEL GERARD MAGEE
_____
CARSWELL LCJ
The appellant Michael Gerard Magee was convicted on 21 December 1990 by
Murray LJ sitting without a jury at Belfast Crown Court of a number of serious
terrorist crimes, including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion,
possession of explosive substances and belonging to a proscribed organisation. The
evidence against him consisted solely of oral admissions and a written statement
made by him during police questioning in Castlereagh Police Office (Castlereagh), in
which he made a comprehensive confession of the crimes with which he was
charged. At the trial he contested the admissibility of the statement, claiming that he
had suffered substantial physical ill-treatment from two of the interviewing
detectives. The trial judge after a long voir dire rejected all of his allegations, finding
that he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant had not been ill-
treated and that the allegations were fabricated by him. He was sentenced to
Ref: CARC3344
Delivered: 06.04.2001
2
concurrent terms of imprisonment, which amounted to an effective sentence of
twenty years.
The appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal, which examined in detail the
evidence and his allegations. In a written judgment delivered on 16 June 1993 the
Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, being satisfied that the appellant had not
been ill-treated and that his conviction was neither unsafe nor unsatisfactory.
The appellant corresponded with the Northern Ireland Office about his
conviction, and when the Criminal Cases Review Commission was set up the papers
were referred to it for consideration. Meanwhile he instituted proceedings before
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), claiming that his treatment in
Castlereagh had given rise to breaches of the European Convention on Human
Rights (the Convention). The ECHR held in a written decision given on 6 June 2000,
that in the circumstances of his detention in Castlereagh there had been a violation
of Article 6(1) of the Convention, in conjunction with Article 6(3)(c) as regards the
denial of access to a solicitor. The Criminal Cases Review Commission then on
25 July 2000 referred the case to this court under section 10 of the Criminal Appeal
Act 1995. Pursuant to section 10(2) of that Act the court is to treat the reference as an
appeal.
On the morning of 15 December 1988 police discovered a large bomb hidden
in a culvert under a road near Antrim. It was designed to be triggered by a signal
from a radio transmitter. A party of soldiers had been due to pass over the culvert in
a bus shortly after the time at which the bomb was found. A number of persons was
arrested in connection with the incident, and a total of eleven were charged with
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1 cases
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King v Patricia Wilson
...(“HRA”) but the appeal is being considered after its commencement. The issue arose for consideration in this jurisdiction in R v Magee [2001] NICA 18. The appellant had been convicted of serious terrorist crimes including conspiracy to murder on 21 December 1990 on the basis of admissions m......
1 books & journal articles
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Don't Mention the War: The Court of Appeal, the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland
...the NICA from increasing the sentencewhen a case has been referred by the CCRC.101 RvMcMenamin [2007] NICA 22 at [23].102 RvMagee [2001] NICA 18, 215.103 Zuckerman, n 73 above, 496.104 n 63 above.105 n 56 above.106 Livingstone, n 59 above.107 I. Cobain, ‘Hundreds of Northern Ireland “terror......