McCourt, Patrick

Patrick McCourt was convicted in January 1977 of hijacking and membership of a proscribed organisation. Mr McCourt received a sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in August 2002.

Following investigation, the CCRC concluded that the trial judge had failed to give adequate reasons for convicting Mr McCourt.

Although a confession statement had been produced, Mr McCourt had refused to sign it and the only evidence against him at trial was the evidence of police officers who alleged that he had made the admissions.

The CCRC considered that, having signed the caution at the top of the statement prior to the alleged confession, Mr McCourt’s refusal to sign the completed statement cast doubt over whether the statement was genuine.

The judgment in relation to Mr McCourt also failed to summarise the evidence that had been given by Mr McCourt.

These omissions were compounded by the relatively limited nature of the evidence available to support the prosecution’s case, the lack of detail provided by the victim of the hijacking when describing the perpetrators, and the inability of the victim to identify Mr McCourt as the hijacker when asked to do so at trial.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2009.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in February 2010.