TWO PRISON officers accused of improperly claiming overtime payments through excessively delaying the return of a prisoner after a hospital visit were not entitled to be legally represented at a disciplinary hearing, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
Alan Burns and John Hartigan, officers at Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon, had claimed three hours overtime arising out of escorting a prisoner for a medical examination to Merlin Park Hospital in Galway on April 26th, 2002.
They left the prison at 10.25am and did not return until 6.25pm. The prison authorities said they should have been back at 3.30pm and alleged, in claiming for the extra three hours or so, they had knowingly solicited an unauthorised gratuity from the prison and therefore breached the disciplinary code for officers.
The officers denied any unnecessary delay and said they had to deal with a “recalcitrant” and difficult prisoner. Both had attended a disciplinary hearing in July 2003 but had refused to participate without legal representation.
The hearing proceeded and the Castlerea Prison governor, Daniel J Scannell, later described their conduct as “totally unacceptable” and imposed a penalty of a pay reduction through forfeiture of a one-year wage increment. They were also confined to duties within the prison walls for a year.
In their High Court challenge, the officers argued, given the seriousness of the charges against them, they were entitled to legal representation at the hearing.
The governor had argued the prison disciplinary code made no provision for legal representation and denied any breach of natural or constitutional justice.
The High Court ruled natural and constitutional justice required they should have had lawyers at the disciplinary hearing but that decision was successfully appealed by the governor to the Supreme Court.
Giving the Supreme Court decision, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, sitting with Mrs Justice Susan Denham and Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said there was no entitlement to legal representation in every disciplinary hearing.