Prisoner fails to gain temporary release to pursue study
Judge says restrictions on temporary release for those serving firearm sentences are justified
In March, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) balloted 96 per cent in favour of taking industrial action, up to and including all-out strikes. File Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times While serving his five-year sentence, Keith Doyle applied to the governor of the training unit at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin for temporary release so as to pursue a course of study, but was refused. File Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
A man who was forced to hold a gun and drugs by a gang who threatened him over a drug debt has failed to get temporary release from a five-year prison sentence to pursue a course of study.
Keith Doyle (30), a father of four, formerly of Palmers Court, Palmerstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in June 2013 to having cannabis, cocaine and MDMA tablets worth some €191,426 for sale or supply on March 21st, 2012.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing a .38 revolver containing live ammunition on the same date at his home.
Gardaí found several holdall bags on top of a wardrobe, in a bathroom press and in a bedside locker which contained the drugs and the handgun with three live rounds of ammunition.
Drug habit
Doyle told gardaí he had been threatened in October 2011 after he became indebted to a gang over a small drug habit. On one occasion a gun was put to his head, he said.
The drugs and gun were delivered to him at home by a man who arrived in a taxi, he said. He told gardaí he couldn’t tell them who the gang were or his life “wouldn’t be worth living” and he’d get a bullet in the back of the head.
Sentencing Judge Martin Nolan accepted Doyle was “under some duress” to hold the drugs and the firearm as a result of threats made against him.
While serving his five-year sentence, Doyle applied to the governor of the training unit at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin for temporary release so as to pursue a course of study, but was refused.
He brought a High Court case challenging provisions of the 1964 Firearms Act, which state that temporary release cannot be granted to those serving a minimum term of imprisonment under that Act.
‘Blunt instrument’
He claimed Section 27C of that Act was unconstitutional because it is disproportionate and a “blunt instrument” covering a wide range of criminal wrongdoing without regard to personal circumstances.
The governor of the training unit, the Minister for Justice, the Irish Prison Service, Ireland and the Attorney General opposed his challenge.
In his judgment, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, dismissed his action.
The judge said he did not accept Section 27C of the Act infringed Doyle’s right to equal treatment before the law under Article 40.1 of the Constitution.
The restrictions on granting temporary release to those serving sentences for firearms are justified, the judge said.
