Leonard (Martha Elizabeth Philomena) v Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Ministry of Defence
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Master McCorry |
| Neutral Citation | [2016] NIMaster 9 |
| Court | High Court (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 09 September 2016 |
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Neutral Citation: [2016] NIMaster 9 Ref: 2016NIMASTER9
Delivered: 09/09/16
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(Subject to editorial corrections)
No. 14/052216
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
QUEENS BENCH DIVISION
Between:
MARTHA ELIZABETH PHILOMENA LEONARD
Plaintiff;
AND
CHIEF CONSTABLE OF THE POLICE SERVICE OF
NORTHERN IRELAND and MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Defendants.
Master McCorry
[1] By summons issued 29th February 2016 the Defendants apply pursuant to
Order 18, rule 19 for orders striking out the plaintiff’s action on the grounds that:
(a) the pleadings disclose no reasonable cause of action and the plaintiff’s
claim is frivolous and vexatious;
(b) by reason of principles established in relevant caselaw the circumstances
on which the case is based do not give rise to a duty of care in negligence
between the plaintiff and either defendant;
(c ) The plaintiff was not a primary or secondary victim of any negligence for
the purposes of any claim for damages in respect of psychiatric injury.
The summons also included applications for remittal and trial of a limitation
question as a preliminary issue, but those matters are not addressed in this judgment.
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[2] On the night of Friday 15th and early morning of Saturday 16th December 1972,
the plaintiff’s 26 year old husband Louis Leonard was murdered by persons who
have never been identified or charged, in his butcher’s shop at Main Street, Derrylin,
County Fermanagh. He had been working preparing meat in the busy run-up to
Christmas and his wife, the plaintiff, had left to deliver orders returning to the shop
at 11.00 pm to find it locked and unlit. She was unable to gain entry even with the
assistance of family members and was unable to locate her husband. She eventually
gave up at 3.30am with the intention of notifying the police at daylight, which she
did by notifying police at Kinawley Police Station at 9.15am. At 11.40am her brother
and brother in law were able to gain entry to the shop through a skylight and found
Louis lying dead on the floor of the walk-in refrigerator. The police were notified and
an Inspector Walmsley attended promptly. He was a uniformed officer but following
the not uncommon practice at the time led the enquiry in the absence of any
experienced detectives in the area. It was quickly established that two men had been
seen by a number of witnesses in the locality, and at the shop, the previous night and
had been associated with a large black car, a Ford Cortina or Zephyr. It appears that
Louis was either shot inside the shop and fell back into the refrigerator or had been
taken from the scene, murdered and his body subsequently returned there. He
had been shot 10 times to head and torso by two different revolvers although only
one bang was reported as having been heard by passers-by. A car fitting the
description of the one seen by witnesses had been hired at Aldergrove Airport, with
a mileage usage consistent with a journey to Fermanagh and back, in which bullets
were found. Two prominent loyalists were spoken to by Inspector Walmsley but
were never formally interviewed and no-one was ever charged in relation to the
murder. One of those loyalists, “Suspect A” was identified as the hirer of the car and
subsequently charged along with a “Suspect B” with various firearms and robbery
offences, however, no steps were taken to investigate further their possible
involvement in Louis Leonard’s murder and both were subsequently acquitted.
Whilst there is nothing to suggest that Louis had been involved in militant
republican activity, his family had known republican sympathies. This along with
police and army activity in the area on the night of the murder, and the absence of
any outcome from a flawed investigation, caused the family to suspect possible
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