Ryan's (Veronica) Application
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] NIQB 47 |
| Date | 06 May 2020 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
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Neutral Citation No: [2020] NIQB 47
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)*
Ref: WEA11251
Delivered: 06/05/2020
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
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QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION (JUDICIAL REVIEW)
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IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY VERONICA RYAN
FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW
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SIR RONALD WEATHERUP
[1] This is an application by Veronica Ryan on her own behalf and on behalf of
James Martin for judicial review of a decision of the Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland dated 3 July 2017 refusing applications for compensation for
miscarriage of justice under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. Mr Southey
QC and Mr Devine appeared for the applicant and Mr Coll QC and Ms Best
appeared for the respondent.
[2] The grounding affidavits of the applicant and James Martin state that on
7 January 1990 they were arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment of a James
Fenton between 25 and 26 February 1989 and of an Alexander Lynch on 5 January
1990. They were later charged with falsely imprisoning Fenton and Lynch and
making their home available for use by terrorists. On 8 May 1991 they were
convicted at Belfast Crown Court of aiding and abetting the false imprisonment of
Fenton and Lynch and allowing their property to be used for terrorist purposes, the
applicant upon a guilty plea. James Martin was sentenced to eight years in respect
of the Lynch offences and four years consecutively in relation to the Fenton offences
and was released in 1996 having served six years eight days in prison. The applicant
was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in respect of the Lynch offences and six
months consecutively in respect of the Fenton offences. She was released from
custody in October 1991.
[3] On 30 April 2008 the applicant and James Martin were invited by the
Criminal Cases Review Commission to apply to have the convictions relating to
Lynch reviewed, based on confidential information. They applied and the Criminal
Cases Review Commission referred the convictions to the Court of Appeal. The
convictions relating to the Lynch offences were quashed by the Court of Appeal on
9 January 2009. They applied for compensation for miscarriage of justice on
26 September 2009 and the claims were accepted on 28 May 2012. On 4 March 2016
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the Independent Assessor delivered his final assessment and awarded James Martin
£367,950.50 and the applicant £186, 814.88.
[4] On 21 February 2008 the Criminal Cases Review Commission had also invited
the applicant and James Martin to apply for review of their convictions relating to
Fenton. They applied and the convictions were referred to the Court of Appeal and
were quashed on 10 October 2014. The Court of Appeal relied on material within a
confidential annex provided by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and
declined to provide any résumé, gist or other information upon which they based
their decision due to the sensitive nature of the information. The applicant and
James Martin applied for compensation for miscarriage of justice and on 3 July 2017
the Secretary of State refused the applications. This is the decision which is the
subject matter of the applications for judicial review made by the applicant and
James Martin.
[5] Further to the grant of leave on the applications for judicial review and by
reason of protected information being a feature of the decision to refuse
compensation for miscarriage of justice the respondent applied for a Closed Material
Procedure under section 6(2)(a) of the Justice and Security Act 2013. Special
Advocates were then appointed.
[6] A Devolution Notice was issued pursuant to paragraph 5 Schedule 10 of the
Northern Ireland Act 1998 as the challenge concerned the validity of the exercise of
powers under section 86 of the 1998 Act. Further, a Notice of Incompatibility was
issued on the basis of the claim that the statutory scheme for compensation for
miscarriage of justice as amended in Northern Ireland was incompatible with the
European Convention on Human Rights. No appearances were entered to either the
Devolution Notice or the Notice of Incompatibility.
[7] The applications of James Martin and Veronica Ryan were consolidated and
the proceedings continued under the name of Veronica Ryan as applicant.
[8] The proceedings awaited the outcome of two appeals to the Supreme Court.
One was R (Nealon) v Secretary of State for Justice [2019] UKSC 2 which concerned the
compatibility of section 133 (1ZA) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 with the
European Convention on Human Rights. The other was R (Stott) v Secretary of State
for Justice [2018] UKSC 59 which concerned the scope of “other status” under the
anti-discrimination provisions in Article 14 of the European Convention on Human
Rights.
[9] The Order 53 Statement was amended and for present purposes two issues
for determination were identified:
(i) First, whether the relevant amendments to the compensation scheme set out
in section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 are compatible with or
authorised by the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
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