EXCLUSIVE

LOW RATE 

Just 15% of witness or jury intimidation cases over past three years ended in conviction, new figures show

• 7:00, 18 Jul 2022

JUST 15 per cent of ­witness or jury intimidation cases over the past three years ended in a conviction, we can reveal.

New figures show there were 100 cases of witness intimidation or interference prosecuted since 2020.

However, just 15 of these cases ended up in convictions — with zero convictions so far this year.

Some 48 cases of witness or juror intimidation were brought before the courts in 2020 and resulted in 11 convictions.

A further 45 prosecutions for the serious crime were taken in 2021 — but only four of these cases resulted in a conviction.

In the first four months of this year, seven cases of witness intimidation or interference were taken to the courts, with none of these ending in a conviction.

The figures were obtained by Social Democrats Catherine Murphy via parliamentary question.

These figures also include cases of intimidation against jurors and witnesses.

However, the Gardai do not record the data separately, so it is impossible to obtain how many cases pertained to an attempt to interfere with a juror.

Intimidation of a witness in a court case can carry a sentence of up to ten years in prison

Witness intimidation is regularly cited as one of the key reasons for retaining the Special Criminal Court — which sits with three judges and no jury.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee commented: “In the type of trials which would be most at risk of jury intimidation . . . the existence of the Special Criminal Court means that jury intimidation is not possible.”