THE Special Criminal Court decision yesterday not to make an order for the arrest of a man who had previously been remanded on firearms charges by a bench which included a delisted judge resurrected the Judge Lynch controversy in Leinster House.
Mr Colm Peake (34), with an address at Fitzgibbon Street, Dublin, had been charged with having one Browning 9mm pistol, one Browning 9mm magazine and 10 9mm rounds of ammunition on November 2nd, 1995, at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.
The case was subsequently returned to the Special Criminal Court from the District Court. Mr Peake was remanded by a bench including Judge Dominic Lynch, who had not been advised that his retirement from that court had been accepted.
Mr Peake failed to answer to that bail in the Special Criminal Court yesterday and is being sought by gardai.
Fianna Fail's justice spokesman, Mr John O'Donoghue, said last night it was "just one illustration of the potential catastrophic consequences of the improper composition of the Special Criminal Court arising out of the failure of the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General to actively pursue the decision of the Government on August 1st to delist Judge Lynch".
Both the Minister and the Attorney General "have led us into a legal quagmire which will probably take years to emerge from", he added.
However, nobody was willing to accept accountability or culpability and the "entire debacle" was being compounded by the "obfuscation" of Mrs Owen. Only yesterday he sought to establish if the letters from Mr Gleeson of October 2nd and November 1st had been sent by post or hand-delivered.
"She referred me to the Cromien Report which does not answer that question and states at the end of her reply that it should be noted that letters from departments of state, including the office of the Attorney General, arrive in her Department mostly by hand delivery but sometimes through the post," he added.
The Progressive Democrats spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said the latest development was "an indication of the gravity of the situation in relation to the invalid constitution of the Special Criminal Court after Judge Lynch was delisted".
"Sadly it is a foretaste of what may lie ahead. Because the person was not granted bail properly, no bench warrant could be issued," she added.
Gardai are now looking for Mr Peake after he failed to turn up at a court hearing yesterday at which it was expected he would be re-arrested and re-charged after the charge against him was struck out.
However, the Special Criminal Court yesterday declined to make an order for Peake's arrest on a charge of possessing a pistol at Beaumont Hospital, last year.
It is understood that no order for Mr Peake's rearrest could be made until the legal issues in the Judge Lynch affair are tested the High Court. However, gardai will search for him to bring new charges.