A man serving a 40-year sentence for the murder of a Garda sergeant in Co Louth 17 years ago has lost a legal application aimed at having his conviction quashed or securing a retrial.
Noel Callan (39), of Cullaville, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, one of the State's longest serving prisoners, was convicted at the non-jury Special Criminal Court in 1985 of the capital murder of Sergeant Patrick Morrissey (49) on June 27th, 1985, at Rathbrist, Tallanstown, Co Louth, following an armed robbery at Ardee labour exchange earlier that same day.
His co-accused, Michael McHugh (41), of Clonalig, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, was also convicted of the murder. Both were sentenced to death for the murder but the sentences were commuted to 40 years' imprisonment.
The court said it was clear that whoever fired the fatal shot intended to kill or seriously injure Sgt Morrissey.
The two men had stolen £25,000 from the labour exchange. Sgt Morrissey had followed them into the grounds of Rathbrist House and was shot there. There was an appreciable time between the firing of the first shot, which had wounded the sergeant, and the fatal second shot.
In an application to the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) last month, Callan asked the court to admit, as newly-discovered facts, a number of matters. The CCA reserved judgment and yesterday refused the application.
Mr Justice McCracken said the CCA found that none of the matters advanced by Callan were new or newly-discovered facts under the Criminal Procedure Act, which would allow him apply to the CCA to review his case.
The judge noted that Callan had now "quite astonishingly" stated in an affidavit that he had committed perjury in his original trial.
Callan had original denied involvement in the robbery or any common design with McHugh. Now he was saying he did take part in the robbery and was part of a common design with McHugh to use firearms both to execute the robbery and make good the escape, including, if necessary, the use of firearms to disable any pursuer, including a garda.
However, Callan denied there was any common design to murder Sgt Morrissey after he had been disabled. It appeared, the judge said, that Callan now sought to make the case that any common design between him and McHugh effectively ended when Sgt Morrissey was injured and did not include any common design subsequently to kill him.
Callan had alleged he did not make this defence at his trial because it would have involved acknowledging that McHugh had murdered Sgt Morrissey, because Callan was reluctant to undermine his defence and because of extreme pressures exerted upon Callan by associates of McHugh.
