Rosaleen Beatty and Director of Public Prosecutions and Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | McCloskey LJ |
| Judgment Date | 24 March 2022 |
| Neutral Citation | [2022] NICA 13 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 24 March 2022 |
1
Neutral Citation No: [2022] NICA 13
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)*
Ref: McC11786
ICOS No: 20/050678/01/A01
Delivered: 24/03/2022
IN HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND
_________
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
(QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION)
_________
BETWEEN:
ROSALEEN BEATTY
Appellant:
-and-
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS AND CHIEF CONSTABLE OF THE
POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND
Respondents:
_________
Mr Hugh Southey QC and Mr Mark Bassett, of counsel (instructed by KRW Law
Solicitors) for the appellant
Mr Tony McGleenan QC and Mr Philip Henry, of counsel (instructed by the Crown
Solicitor’s Office) for the respondent
_________
Before: Keegan LCJ, McCloskey LJ and Maguire LJ
________
McCLOSKEY LJ (delivering the judgment of the court)
Introduction
[1] The central issue raised by this appeal is the correct construction of section
35(5)(a) of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002. This provides:
“The Chief Constable of the Police Service of
Northern Ireland must, at the request of the Director,
ascertain and give to the Director –
(a) Information about any matter appearing to the
Director to need investigation on the ground that it
may involve an offence committed against the law
of Northern Ireland ….”
2
(“Director” denotes Director of Public Prosecutions, hereinafter the “DPP”). We
shall describe the Chief Constable and the Police Service of Northern Ireland as the
”Chief Constable” and the “Police Service” respectively – and, for convenience, as a
single entity.
[2] Rosaleen Beatty, the appellant, by her application for judicial review failed in
her quest to persuade the High Court that section 35(5)(a) invests the DPP with a
discretionary power to direct the Chief Constable to accelerate the police
investigation into the death of her brother, Ambrose Hardy (“the deceased”). This
death occurred in one of a series of incidents on 3/4 February 1973 in the New
Lodge Road area of North Belfast giving rise to a total of six deaths. It is alleged that
members of the British armed forces perpetrated these deaths without legal
justification. Almost 50 years later these events and fatalities remain matters of
considerable notoriety and controversy. On 27 March 1975 there was an inquest into
Mr Hardy’s death giving rise to an open verdict. There is to be a new inquest (infra).
Factual Matrix
[3] In addition to the events noted above, the material dates and events belong to
a more recent period, of some four years, beginning in April 2017. These may be
summarised thus:
(i) In April 2017 the Appellant’s solicitors applied to the Attorney General for
Northern Ireland (“AGNI”) to exercise his statutory power to direct that a
fresh inquest be held.
(ii) By its reply by letter dated 19 September 2018 the office of AGNI rejected the
request under section 14(1) of the Coroner’s Act (NI) 1959. The letter stated
inter alia:
“Having considered the matter the Attorney considers
that there was no adequate criminal justice investigation
at the time and its absence deprived the inquest of much
of any effectiveness as it could even then be expected to
have had ….
These deaths ought to have been properly investigated. A
case of alleged deliberate killing of multiple persons such
as this, whether all six be regarded as one group or two
groups, would have required a properly focused police
investigation …
Given that an inquest is not designed as a substitute for a
proper criminal justice investigation, the Attorney General
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