McIntyre's (Anthony) Application
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Morgan LCJ |
| Judgment Date | 22 October 2018 |
| Neutral Citation | [2018] NIQB 79 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 22 October 2018 |
1
Neutral Citation: [2018] NIQB 79
Ref:
MOR10766
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
Delivered:
22/10/2018
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
______
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION (JUDICIAL REVIEW)
_______
IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION
FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW BY ANTHONY MCINTYRE
________
AND IN THE MATTER OF A DECISION OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC
PROSECUTIONS UNDER SECTION 7(5) OF THE CRIME (INTERNATIONAL
CO-OPERATION) ACT 2003
_______
Before: Morgan LCJ, Weatherup LJ and Weir LJ
_______
MORGAN LCJ (delivering the judgment of the court)
[1] The applicant was convicted of membership of a proscribed organisation,
namely the Irish Republican Army, contrary to section 19 of the Northern Ireland
(Emergency Provisions) Act 1973 and sentenced on 9 December 1974 to a period of
two years imprisonment. He was subsequently arrested on 28 February 1976 and
convicted of one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, one count of
hijacking and one count of possession of a weapon with intent to endanger life. He
was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of
25 years. He appealed in respect of the murder charge and in 1979 the recommended
minimum term was reduced to 20 years imprisonment.
[2] In 2001 he became involved in an academic oral history project known as the
“Belfast Project" with the journalist and author Ed Moloney who was the project
director. The project was sponsored by Boston College, Massachusetts, USA. The
object of the project was to collect and preserve for academic research the
recollections of members of republican and loyalist paramilitary organisations. The
methodology was to gather first-hand testimony by way of voice recordings from
participants.
2
[3] The project lasted from 2001 until May 2006. It began with interviews of
former members of the Provisional IRA and was subsequently expanded to include
interviews with former members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The applicant was a
researcher. He interviewed past participants in the conflict recording their personal
recollections. His experience as a journalist and a participant gave him access to
those people and enabled them to repose a degree of trust in him which they might
not otherwise have had.
[4] Each participant gave the content of the recordings into the possession of
Boston College for preservation. Access to the tapes was to be restricted until after
the interviewee's death except where they provided prior written authority for their
use otherwise. The applicant maintains that it was always understood that the
contents of the interviews might be accessible after death, primarily for academic
purposes. He says that it was never envisaged that the contents would be accessed
by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (“PSNI”) for the purposes of criminal
investigation or prosecution.
[5] In February 2011 mutual legal assistance was sought by the PSNI from the
authorities in the USA to obtain tapes held by Boston College relating to interviews
conducted with Republican participants touching upon the abduction and death of
Jean McConville. A series of subpoenas was issued by the US District Court
requiring Boston College to deliver up the materials. This was resisted on the basis
of the risks to the well-being of the researchers. The US court concluded, however,
that some of the materials should be provided to the UK authorities. In 2012 this
applicant then instituted proceedings in this jurisdiction seeking to prevent the PSNI
from obtaining confidential archive material provided to the Trustees of Boston
College Massachusetts USA. That application was dismissed in October 2012.
[6] The applicant gave an interview to the BBC's Spotlight programme broadcast
in May 2014 in which he stated that he had provided an interview on tape to the
organisers of the Boston College Project. In the interview he stated that he had
exposed himself “to exactly the same risks as anybody else was exposed to”. The
PSNI interpreted that statement as suggesting that the applicant had disclosed
criminal conduct in his interview on tape.
[7] Detective Chief Inspector Montgomery indicated that the PSNI was
conducting a criminal investigation into matters in which the involvement of the
applicant was suspected. The first was a bomb attack which DCI Montgomery said
occurred on 6 February 1976 on a house situated at Rugby Avenue, Belfast. It is
common case that there was a bomb attack on a house at Rugby Avenue in 1976 in
respect of which the applicant was detained and questioned by the Army following
the attack. PSNI maintain that they received information that the applicant was
involved in the bomb attack and that the information linking the applicant to the
attack was received on 6 February 1976. The applicant maintains that he was in fact
the target of the attack and that in any event if the attack was on the date alleged he
was in police custody throughout that day.
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