AN IRISH man jailed for life for the murder of a man in England 17 years ago has lost his Supreme Court challenge to the legality of his continuing detention.
The case of Jonathan Caffrey, whose case was dismissed yesterday by a majority of three to two, raised important issues concerning the treatment of persons convicted in other jurisdictions and transferred here to serve their sentences.
Caffrey (36), who is detained in Portlaoise Prison following his transfer to Ireland in 2005, had appealed against the High Court’s refusal in 2010 to order his release under article 40 of the Constitution. He argued that the minimum 12-year tariff recommended for him by the English sentencing court expired in March 2010 and any detention beyond that was preventative and, therefore, unlawful under Irish law. The Parole Board here had indicated in 2009 that a release plan might be put in place in 2011, the court heard.
A native of Ireland with family in Co Louth, Caffrey, with co-accused Brett Evans, was convicted in England in 1999 of the murder in 1994 of Andrew Cook, Downside Walk, Northolt, Middlesex.
Caffrey and Evans received the mandatory life sentence for murder. The trial judge recommended that Caffrey serve a minimum sentence of 12 years and Evans a minimum of 15 years.
The trial heard that Caffrey, Evans and another man, Justin Reiss, visited Mr Cook at his home in November 1994 where a row broke out after Cook accused Caffrey of having an affair. Caffrey beat Cook unconscious after which Evans went to the kitchen, where he got two knives and stabbed Mr Cook to death.
The Supreme Court appeal centred on construction of the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts 1995 (as amended), particularly section 7 governing management of the sentences of transferred persons.
Section 7 provides for the continued enforcement by this State of the sentence imposed by the sentencing state “in its legal nature and duration”. The main issue was what was meant by the phrase “legal nature and duration”.
Giving the majority Supreme Court decision, the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Susan Denham, said the courts in England and Ireland had no discretion concerning sentence for murder. The primary necessary finding in this case was that the sentence imposed on Caffrey was a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
As the Act clearly states that a reference to the “legal nature” of a sentence did not include a reference to its duration, it was necessary to look to the “nature” of a sentence, not merely its duration, she said.
In this case, the nature of the sentence was that it was a life sentence, not a 12-year sentence, and the fact there was a 12-year tariff in England did not change that nature, she said.
Once Caffrey was transferred here, the management of his sentence was the responsibility of the Prison Service and related services, including the Parole Board. He was serving a valid sentence of imprisonment for life here. Management of that sentence was now governed by Irish law and the management scheme in England was no longer relevant.
Dissenting, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly, with whom Mr Justice John Murray agreed, said it was clearly the case that Caffrey was detained solely for preventative considerations since March 2010.
The result of the court’s inquiry into the “legal nature” of the sentence was that Caffrey’s detention was exclusively for a purpose not compatible with Irish law. In light of the Supreme Court judgment in the Lynch v Whelan case, his detention was unlawful and he was entitled to be released under article 40 of the Constitution, he said.
