A Co Monaghan man who was jailed for 10 years has lost his appeal against his conviction for having a massive explosives haul near the Border in 2003.
Joseph Fee (41), Blackstaff, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, was jailed by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in December 2004 after he was convicted of the unlawful possession of an explosive substance - ammonium nitrate and sugar - with intent to endanger life at Thornfield, Co Louth, on June 13th, 2003.
His trial was told that gardaí found 1,100lbs of home-made explosives in a stolen van when they raided a farmyard in Co Louth after a major surveillance operation in north Co Louth. Fee was arrested nearby.
Paul Burns SC, for Fee, submitted to the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday that the trial court had erred in not treating as an accomplice a witness who gave evidence that he had bought 13 bags of sugar for Fee.
The trial court should have warned itself of the dangers of acting on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice, counsel said. He also submitted that the trial court had not given sufficient weight to the failure of the gardaí to properly preserve the scene at the time of Fee's arrest.
Dismissing the appeal, Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding, said the Special Criminal Court had not erred in law in the manner in which it treated Fee's trial. There were no unfair procedures adopted by the trial court, the appeals court found.