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Historical cases

  • 02-04-2019 12:58pm
    #1
    Credit Checker Moose
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,226 ✭✭✭


    Just something that has been bugging me for a few days.


    Let's say the Gardaí arrest someone on the run for 10 years.


    Now naturally they want to charge him with the historical crime.


    Let's suppose that some of the Gardaí involved in the case are now dead or have moved on and are no longer on the force.


    Now how can the state proceed where witnesses are not available? Surely the accused has the right to cross examine witnesses?


Comments

  • #2
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Guards who are no longer on the force can still be called to give evidence. Why not?

    But, yeah, if there's a long enough delay a successful prosecution does become more and more difficult to mount. This is an issue not so much with fugitive offenders as with child abuse cases, where it's not unheard of for victims to wait 20 years or more before telling anyone at all what has happened to them, never mind making a complaint to the police.


  • #3
    Credit Checker Moose
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,226 ✭✭✭Credit Checker Moose


    Is there any requirement for former members to remain available to give evidence for years later?


  • #4
    brian_t
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,790 ✭✭✭brian_t


    Credit Checker Moose wrote: »
    Let's suppose that some of the Gardaí involved in the case are now dead or have moved on and are no longer on the force.

    Now how can the state proceed where witnesses are not available? Surely the accused has the right to cross examine witnesses?

    How likely is it that the witnesses will also be Gardai.


  • #5
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Credit Checker Moose wrote: »
    Is there any requirement for former members to remain available to give evidence for years later?
    Well, you can't stop them dying, can you?

    But anyone can be summonsed to give evidence in court, so what's to stop the prosecution summonsing a retired guard?

    But in truth a summons probably wouldn't be necessary; unless a guard had left the force in circumstances of hostility and ill-will why would he be reluctant to give evidence? He'd understand the need for him to do so, and he'd have spent years immersed in a culture in which guards are expected to support one another, and to support the mission of the force. Plus, the whole point of him investigating the crime in the first place was to bring the perpetrator to trial; why, in retirement, would he now wish to impede a trial, and so devalue and undercut the work he did while serving?

    Certainly in the early months after retirement it's pretty common for guards, forensic scientists etc who have recentily retired to give evidence in relation to cases which they investigated before their retirement, but which come to trial shortly after. I don't see why they would refuse or be reluctant to give evidence later, if for one reason or another cases take a while to come to trial.


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