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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 1997

Vol. 480 No. 6

Written Answers - Criminal Court Cases.

Trevor Sargent

Question:

495 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number and percentages of persons charged in the circuit criminal courts and the Central Criminal Court who were convicted or acquitted for each of the years from 1990 to date in 1997; and the number and percentages of persons charged in the Special Criminal Court who were convicted or acquitted during the same period. [14515/97]

Trevor Sargent

Question:

496 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number and percentages of persons charged in the circuit criminal courts and the Central Criminal Court who were convicted or acquitted after having pleaded not guilty for each of the years from 1990 to date in 1997; and the number and percentages of persons charged in the Special Criminal Court who were convicted or acquitted after having pleaded not guilty during the same period. [14516/97]

I propose to answer Questions Nos. 495 and 496 together.

The information requested in so far as it is available is set out in the following tables.

In relation to the Circuit Criminal Court, prior to the legal year 94/95 Circuit Court statistics were collated on the basis of the number of new cases received in each legal year rather than on the number of cases dealt with. Statistics on the number of criminal cases dealt with by the Circuit Criminal Court in the legal years ending 31/7/90 to 31/7/94 are therefore not available.
Statistics on the number of accused persons convicted or acquitted are only available for both the Circuit Criminal and Central Criminal Court for year ending 31/7/97.
CIRCUIT CRIMINAL COURTS
(a) Provincial Circuits

Circuit

Year Ending 31/7/95

Year Ending 31/7/96

Northern

68

26

Midlands

47

68

Eastern

113

103

South Eastern

103

119

Western

33

48

South Western

51

75

Cork

82

120

Total

507

559

Circuit

No. of cases

No. of accused persons

Acquittals

Convictions

Other

Number of accused persons acquitted

As a % of total number of persons accused

Total number of accused persons convicted

As a % of total number ofaccused persons

Total number of persons convicted on a plea of guilty

As a % of total number of persons convicted

Number of persons convicted on a plea of guilty

As a % of total number of persons convicted

Northern

59

67

1

1%

66

99%

61

92%

5

8%

Midlands

74

77

4

5%

71

92%

70

99%

1

1%

2 Nolle Prosequi

Eastern

119

124

12

10%

110

89%

91

83%

19

17%

2 Nolle Prosequi

South Eastern

101

116

6

5%

108

93%

96

89%

12

11%

2 Nolle Prosequi

Western

44

45

2

4%

43

96%

40

93%

3

7%

South Western

82

101

8

8%

86

85%

72

84%

14

16%

4 Nolle Prosequi

2 Adjourned

1 Discharged

Cork

116

116

21

18%

95

82%

85

89%

10

11%

Total

595

646

54

8%

579

90%

515

89%

64

11%

CIRCUIT CRIMINAL COURTS
(b) Dublin Circuit Court

Number of new Criminal Cases received by the Dublin Circuit Court for legal years 94/95 to 96/97

Year

No. of Cases

No. of Persons

94/95

863

Not available

95/96

899

Not available

96/97

914

1016

Note: Dublin Circuit Court statistics are still collated on basis of cases received rather than cases dealt with. No statistics are available on the number of accused, convicted or acquitted.
CIRCUIT CRIMINAL COURTS

Number of Cases dealt with by the Central Criminal Court in years ending 31/12/90 to 31/12/96

Year ending

No. of Cases

31/12/90

14

31/12/91

45

31/12/92

61

31/12/93

59

31/12/94

49

31/12/95

66

Number of Cases and Accused Persons dealt with by the Central Criminal Court in years ending 31/7/97

Year Ending

No. of cases

No. of accused persons

Acquittals

Convictions

Nolle Prosequi

Number of persons acquitted

As a % of number of persons convicted

Total number of persons convicted

As a % of total number of persons accused

Total number of persons convicted on a plea of guilty

As a % of total number of persons convicted

Total number of persons convicted on number of a plea of guilty

Number as a % of total persons convicted

31/7/96

52

53

Not available

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

31/7/97

80

83

6

7%

69

83%

41

59%

28

41%

7

One guilty but insane verdict

Year Ending

No. of cases

No. of accused persons

Acquittals

Convictions

Nolle Prosequi

Number of persons acquitted

As a % of number of persons convicted

Total number of persons convicted

As a % of total number of persons accused

Total number of persons convicted on a plea of guilty

As a % of total number of persons convicted

Total number of persons convicted on number of a plea of guilty

Number as a % of total persons convicted

31/12/90

30

49

9

18%

39

80%

16

70%

23

30%

1

31/12/91

20

38

16

42%

22

58%

7

32%

15

68%

31/12/92

17

24

4

17%

20

83%

16

80%

4

20%

31/12/93

18

21

1

5%

19

90%

13

68%

6

5%

1

31/12/94

15

29

3

10%

20

69%

7

35%

13

10%

6

31/12/95

10

12

1

8%

9

75%

5

56%

4

44%

2

31/12/96

9

15

None

Nil

13

87%

9

69%

4

31%

2

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