Madam, - It is with some dismay that I read of the Criminal Law (Defence of Life and Property) Bill proposed by the Minister for Justice. The Minister is reported in your newspaper (March 15th) as saying that the Bill, if enacted, would remove the duty on the householder to retreat if accosted by a burglar in their home.
The law as it currently stands places no such duty of retreat on the householder. Mr Justice Hardiman, in a judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal delivered last December, explicitly acknowledged that it would be inconsistent with the constitutional right to inviolability of the dwelling to place such an onus on the homeowner. He also stated that in considering the amount of force used in self-defence by a person who encounters a burglar, a court would be conscious of the fact that such a person has been "deliberately subjected to an experience which will shock even the most robust and might make many irrational with terror". The substance of the judgment is that the act of burglary is an independent act of aggression which may be met with force sufficient to expel or arrest the perpetrator.
Those who subscribe to the view that the householder should have a right to kill an intruder in every case would be wise to reflect on the fact that our Constitution places a premium on life, not death. The present law permits retaliation with lethal force where necessary, and the courts are cognisant of the uneasy predicament visited upon the burgled citizen.
The Bill proposed by Mr. McDowell is entirely unnecessary and yet another example of cynical political window-dressing. It is to be regretted that the Government sees fit to engage in reform of the right to silence, sentencing and self-defence in a frenzied pre-election atmosphere. It is time for an independent statutory commission on criminal justice, with input from all the stakeholders in the system. - Yours, etc,
MARK COEN,
Tubber Road,
Gort,
Co Galway.