Just 27% of witness or jury intimidation cases result in conviction

Almost 350 prosecutions for witness or jury intimidation have been taken in the past decade, but only a quarter have resulted in conviction.

A total of 343 cases have been brought since 2011 under Section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999, which makes it an offence to “harm, threaten, menace or in any other way intimidate or put in fear” a witness, a juror or a potential juror.

There were 92 convictions for the same offence during the same period, a conviction rate of 27 per cent.

It is impossible to say how many cases related to jury intimidation and how many to witness intimidation, with the Department of Justice saying the figures are not recorded in a way that would allow for such a breakdown.

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While witness intimidation cases appear before the courts with relative frequency, jury intimidation prosecutions are extremely rare. The Irish Times could find no public record of someone being prosecuted for jury intimidation in the past decade.

According to the figures, there have been 18-58 prosecutions for witness or jury intimidation each year since 2011. So far this year, 11 cases have come before the courts and no one has been convicted.

The risk of jury intimidation is frequently cited by Government as justification for the retention of the non-jury Special Criminal Court.

Organised crime and terrorism offences are automatically sent to the Special Criminal Court while the Director of Public Prosecutions can, under the Offences Against the State Act, refer other cases there if she judges the ordinary courts are "inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice and the preservation of public peace and order".

Major review

Security laws underpinning the operation of the court are the subject of major review. An expert group, headed by retired judge Mr Justice Michael Peart, is examining all aspects of the Offences against the State Act. An interim report is due shortly.

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy, who obtained the figures from the department, said better data was needed in this area, particularly given the debate over the Special Criminal Court.

“We need to have clarity in what we’re talking about. And you can’t have clarity if you don’t have clarity in the figures.”

In reply to questions from Ms Murphy, Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys said the Courts Service "makes every effort to provide a safe and secure environment for jurors who attend for jury duty and for those sworn onto a jury". Juries are assigned a jury minder who are "very much alive to the issue of security and possible intimidation", she said.