Re Hughes' Application
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1986 |
| Date | 01 January 1986 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
Appeal - Natural justice - Applicant, a victim of assault, a prosecution witness - Bound over to keep peace by magistrate - Applicant not legally represented, failed to understand proceedings - Appeal to Recorder - Appeal not served on "other party" - Recorder declined jurisdiction - Application for judicial review - Whether breach of natural justice - Consideration of "other party" in such proceedings - Observations on procedure when binding over -Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order, 1981 (S.I. No. 1675, N.I. 26), art. 144 (1) C.C.R., 0.32, r. 1.
The applicant had been involved in a fracas at a bar in Belfast. As a consequence complaints were brought by the police against certain persons, who were charged with assaulting the applicant. At the hearing of the complaint against one such person, the applicant gave evidence on behalf of the complaint, and at the conclusion of the case the Resident Magistrate convicted and sentenced the defendant. However he took the view that the applicant had been deeply involved in the incident in which the assault occurred, and that there was strong evidence of provocation on his part. He asked the applicant, then seated in the body of the court, to stand up, and expressed the view that he felt the applicant was in many ways the author of his own misfortune. Accordingly he said that he proposed to bind the applicant over in the sum of 200 and to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years, and asked the applicant if there was anything he wished to say. The applicant appealed this order to Belfast Recorder's Court. The Recorder, however, held that he had no jurisdiction to entertain it, on the ground that it had not been served on "the other party" as required by Article 144 (1) of the Magistrates Courts (Northern Ireland) Order, 1987. The applicant sought judicial review of this decision. Held, granting an order of certiorari to quash the decision, that there had been a breach of natural justice, in that the resident magistrate did not fulfil...
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