Finally Some Common Sense From A Judge.......

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56942056
.....well done M'lud.

[naomi24]

Good!

[ToraToraTora]

....cue the anti British....

[sunny-dave]

Quite good clear report here :

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2021/0504/1213720-joe-mccann-murder-trial/

[Sunk]

It is not a Judge being sensible, it is that the process was flawed. The Judge had no option but to end the prosecution.

Questions need to be asked why the police CPS and the judicial system let this go to Court in the first place.

[Sunk]

Thanks for the info sunny-dave.
Very informative.
Another cock-up by the CPS it seems.

[sunny-dave]

Yes - regardless of the issues of innocence/guilt the process here was hopelessly flawed.

You simply cannot prosecute someone on the basis of a historical statement which was made without proper caution, possibly even under duress, and certainly without proper legal advice.

[ToraToraTora]

sunk: "Questions need to be asked why the police CPS and the judicial system let this go to Court in the first place." - I can answer that from experience, the CPS is full of lefty lawyers who can't get a proper job and prosecute cases based on their personal left wing ideology or what they think the TROB/Libfacs want. The actual case evidence etc is secondary to that. I know I have been on trial myself with no viable evidence, similarly thrown out once a grown up gets involved. Shame these guys had to endure 10years of this for it to be thrown out so readily. Could they not see they had no case 10 years ago? The CPS is not fit for purpose and should be disbanded and replaced with something objective.

[burlyshirley]

Shame those poor blokes had to go through that in the first place !

[Jackdaw33]

I agree about the CPS. When I was doing my law finals it was made abundantly clear that the CPS was a professional graveyard. Only those who could not get employment with private firms would consider it as a last option.

[THECORBYLOON]

The report also states, "He questioned why the HET's re-examination did not prompt a fresh investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), with the veterans interviewed under caution.

The judge suggested that course of action might have made a prosecution more sustainable."

[andy-hughes]

As Sunk advises, it's less a matter of the judge's 'common sense', which implies that he has some personal influence in the actions of his court - clearly he does not - and the fact that the legal process did not stack up in terms of the trial being allowed to continue.

It's clear that legal flaws were in place, and therefore visible to the CPS, well before the trial reached the stage it did, and it is far less clear why those flaws were not considered and acted upon, leading to either the trial being halted fare earlier, or ideally not being commenced in the first place.

[ynnafymmi]

These IRA scum barstrads murdered thousands of us Scots,Corby.High time us Scots united to get rid of the remnants of this murderous outfit once and for all.

[Bobbisox1]

And British soldiers too ynnafymmi

[ummmm]

Did they ynnafymmi? First I heard about that!

[youngmafbog]

Oh dear Xiden wont be happy with that ynnafymmi.

Yes a good decision from the Judge and I agree entirely with you TTT, CPS is not fit for purpose.

[ummmm]

my sons partner works for CPS. He spends most of his time watching films.

[ynnafymmi]

Aye,i forgot about the McCaig brothers.Young Scots murdered by utter scumbags.Back to you Ummm.

[ummmm]

I'm not reading all that, but that goes for everyone who joins the British army. Pot luck isn't it?

My granddad joined the army at 16 even though we're Irish. He hit a land mine...suffered for the rest of his life. My uncles and cousin also joined the army.

You can't join the army and not expect conflict.

I would never stand in support of any terrorist groups. Cowards, the lot of them.

[ummmm]

ynnafymmi - I just haven't read about it so didn't know.