Emergency legislation is expected to be passed by the Dail and Seanad today to close a loophole in the law governing kidnapping and false imprisoning. Attention was drawn to the deficiency in existing legislation last week during the trial of a Dublin man in the Special Criminal Court for offences connected with the kidnapping of former banker Mr Jim Lacey four years ago.
An "Interpretation Bill" is expected to be debated in both Houses after it is cleared at Cabinet, and the Seanad will sit in special session tonight to allow its passage. Work was continuing on the Bill up to yesterday.
Mr Justice Barr, presiding in last week's case, criticised the drafting and enactment of the 1997 legislation, which meant the court could not consider false imprisonment charges against Joseph Kavanagh. The accused man was subsequently jailed for 12 years for the robbery of £243,000 in cash.
However, because of a legal technicality, the court was unable to consider other charges against Kavanagh of falsely imprisoning Mr Lacey, his wife and daughter. This arose because the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, passed earlier this year, re-categorised the offences of kidnapping and false imprisonment from common-law offences to statutory offences.
The indictment against Kavanagh was brought under common law and Mr Justice Barr said, following a submission from the defendant's counsel, that the court could not consider the false imprisonment counts.