THE SUPREME COURT
Appeal No. 142/00
McGuinness J.
Hardiman J.
Geoghegan J

BETWEEN
BERNARD HASSET
APPELLANT/APPLICANT
AND

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
RESPONDENT

Ruling of the Court delivered by Mrs. Justice McGuinness the 30th day of November 2000 [Nem. Diss.]

In this case the appellant, who is at present detained in Limerick Prison, has sought leave to issue judicial review proceedings seeking Orders of Certiorari, Mandamus and Prohibition. Leave was refused by the High Court (Finnegan J.) in orders dated 23rd May 2000 and the 8th June 2000.

The applicant has charges pending against him at Limerick, Killarney and Galway. Discussions took place between the applicant’s solicitor and the State’s solicitor for Galway who recommended to the Director of Public Prosecutions that all charges pending in the three Circuits mentioned be dealt with in Galway Circuit Court. The State Solicitor for Limerick

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has expressed the view that there is no mechanism whereby all matters can be so dealt with. The applicant either has pleaded guilty or has indicated his intention to plead guilty to all the offences concerned and is awaiting sentence. The applicant is anxious that all these matters should be dealt with in the Circuit Court in Galway and that he should be sentenced in that Court. He has appealed to this Court against the order and ruling of the learned High Court judge.

Having considered the documentation and written submissions before it, this Court considers that the applicant has raised an arguable issue as to whether it is open to a judge of one Circuit to take into account, when sentencing an offender, offences which were committed by the same offender in the jurisdictional area of another Circuit.

This Court will therefore allow the appellant’s appeal to the extent that the Court will give leave to the appellant to issue proceedings by way of judicial review seeking a declaration that the judge of the Western Circuit sitting at Galway, when sentencing the appellant for offences committed in the area of the Western Circuit, may also deal with offences which were committed in the Circuit Court areas of Limerick and Kerry where the applicant has admitted his guilt.