R v William Courtney
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Kerr LCJ |
| Judgment Date | 2007 |
| Neutral Citation | [2007] NICA 6 |
| Date | 26 January 2007 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland) |
1
Neutral Citation no. [2007] NICA 6
Ref:
KERF5734
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
Delivered:
26/1/07
(subject to editorial corrections)
IN HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND
_________
REGINA
-v-
WILLIAM COURTNEY
_________
PROSECUTION APPEAL PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 17
OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 2004
_________
Before Kerr LCJ, Campbell LJ and Coghlin J
________
KERR LCJ
Introduction
[1] This is an application for leave to appeal against a ruling made by
McLaughlin J on the trial of William Courtney whom we shall refer to as ‘the
defendant’. He had appeared before the learned judge, sitting without a jury,
at Belfast Crown Court on a charge of the murder of Alan McCullough and
two charges of belonging to a proscribed organisation. On 28 November
2006, at the close of the Crown case, the judge acceded to an application made
on Mr Courtney’s behalf for a direction of no case to answer on each of the
charges.
[2] After the ruling was given, the prosecution applied to the judge for an
adjournment pursuant to article 17 (4) of the Criminal Justice (Northern
Ireland) Order 2004 in order to consider whether to apply for leave to appeal
against his decision. The matter was adjourned until 30 November and on
that date an application was made for leave to appeal against the ruling in
relation to the charge of murder. McLaughlin J refused that application and
the Crown now renews the application to this court.
2
The prosecution evidence as summarised by the judge
[3] The learned judge summarised the evidence called on behalf of the
prosecution in the following passages of his judgment: -
“[5] It is not in dispute that the deceased, Alan
McCullough, was a member of C Company of the
UDA in early 2003. At that stage it was under the
command of Johnny Adair. In February 2003 two
men were murdered as they left a ferry terminal at
Belfast Docks. The blame for these murders fell upon
C Company and as a result the other sections of the
UDA combined and ordered all members of C
Company to leave Northern Ireland. The deceased
did so in the company of his girlfriend and others
immediately upon the utterance of the threat.
Between February and April 2003 efforts were made
by his mother and the deceased to facilitate his return
to Northern Ireland. Initially Mrs McCullough made
inquiries and contacted a number of people, including
the defendant. She managed to obtain the
defendant’s mobile telephone number and spoke to
him on a number of occasions about the possibility of
securing the return of the deceased to Northern
Ireland. She could not remember much of the detail
of her conversations but did remember that she had
spoken to him on more than one occasion. She also
recalled that he had visited her house a few times
accompanied on one occasion by a Denis
Cunningham. In the course of this meeting it would
seem that she had explained to the defendant the
difficulties she had faced through the previous 20
years following upon the murder of her husband and
that she did not feel that she had been treated right
over those years. She stated the conversation
culminated with the defendant saying he would go to
see other people including other commanders of the
Inner Council of the UDA and he would do so as he
thought that “they” owed her something. The
meeting lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. The evidence
of Mrs McCullough was particularly vague about the
detail of this conversation. It is obvious that she was
having discussions with a considerable number of
people and it was never alleged there was any sense
of threat in any of the words or actions of the
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19 cases
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Re Loughlin (application for judicial review (Northern Ireland))
...made to the trial judge at the end of the Crown case. Gillen J held that the proper test to be applied was that outlined in R v Courtney [2007] NICA 6, which had applied the principles set out in R v Galbraith 73 Cr App R 124, R v Shippey (1998) Crim LR 767 and Chief Constable v Lo [2006] ......
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Queen v Mark Haddock and others
...be found in R v Galbraith 73. Cr. App. R. 124 (“Galbraith”) and R v Shippey (1998) Crim. LR. 767 (“Shippey”) as applied in R v Courtney (2007) NICA 6 and Chief Constable v Lo (2006) NICA3. See also R v P [2011] NIJB 225 and the helpful comments of Judge LCJ recently in R v F the Tines 25 Ju......
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R v Francis Lanigan
...as established by the evidence in deciding whether there is an inference consistent with innocence. [10] In R v William Courtney [2007] NICA 6 at para [20] the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland commenting on the well-known decision of R v Exall [1866] 4 F and F 922 said: “Where, as in thi......
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Queen v James Oliver Meehan , Brenda Dolores Meehan & Sean Anthony Devenney (Ruling No. 8: No case to answer)
...for example, Chief Constable of PSNI –v- Lo [2006] NI 261 and [2005] NICA 3, paragraphs [10] – [16] especially and The Queen –v- Courtney [2007] NICA 6, paragraphs [18] and [19]. [11] A notable contribution to this subject was provided by Lord Lowry LCJ in The Queen –v- Hassan and Others [1......
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