Queen v O'Donnell (Matthew James)
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Morgan LCJ |
| Judgment Date | 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] NICA 1 |
| Date | 15 January 2010 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland) |
1
Neutral Citation No. [2010] NICA 1 Ref:
MOR7720
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered:
15/01/10
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN HER MAJESTY'S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND
___________
THE QUEEN
-v-
MATTHEW JAMES O’DONNELL
_________
Before: Morgan LCJ, Higgins LJ and Girvan LJ
________
Morgan LCJ (delivering the judgment of the court)
[1] The applicant renews his application for leave to appeal against his
conviction at Dungannon Crown Court on 18 December 2007 of the murder of
Noel Alexander Williamson in Caledon on 13 October 2004.
The background to the offence
[2] He is a 29 year old man with an IQ of 63 and an understanding of
spoken English equivalent to that of a 6 year old child. In October 2004 he was
living at Castle Park, Caledon. The applicant spent most of the day and night
of 12 October 2004 drinking in the company of the deceased and Samuel
Houston who subsequently admitted the manslaughter of the deceased.
Houston was behaving in a threatening and aggressive manner to a number
of individuals including the deceased. He harboured a grudge against the
deceased as a result of an earlier incident in which Houston had been
attacked by a number of youths and claimed that he had not been defended
by the deceased.
[3] The applicant also made threats about the deceased during that day.
One witness described how the applicant said he intended to hit the deceased
when the deceased came back to a nearby park later that night as planned.
That witness also said that when Houston produced a knife and said he was
going to kill the deceased the applicant encouraged him to "just kill him".
There was also evidence that the applicant and Houston asked the deceased
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1 cases
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Queen v Clarke (Michael Patrick) and McStravick (Stephen Paul)
...recently, the provisions of the 1988 Order have been considered afresh by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in The Queen –v- O’Donnell [2010] NICA 1, where the decision in Cowan fell to be considered. The Lord Chief Justice stated: “[14] The third ground of appeal related to the learned ......