(Mayo): In the High Court on Tuesday 30 September Mr. Justice Moriarty ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions not to proceed with a charge of assault against a Kilkenny man pending a judicial review. The defendant had previously been before the District Court on 2 September, charged with assault contrary to common law.
In his submission to the District Court the defendant's solicitor applied to have the charge struck out on the grounds that the offence was "no longer known to law". He argued that the offence had been abolished by a section of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997. This Act was widely acclaimed in that it set down specific and effective measures to deal with the use of syringes in robberies and muggings. However, it also took up a proposal in a 1994 report by the Law Reform Commission which suggested the need for re-codification of the law on assault. In line with this recommendation, section 28 (1) of the Act abolished the common law offence of assault and battery. This provision came into effect on 19 August. The draftspersons apparently relied on the Interpretation Act, 1937, which lays down that the abolition of a statutory offence shall not prejudice outstanding cases under the statute. The legal point at issue is whether assault and battery is a statutory or, as argued by the accused's solicitor, a common law offence.
I raise this matter to establish whether, in passing an excellent Act, the Oireachtas unwittingly may have given an implicit amnesty to all persons facing charges of assault and battery at the time the measure came into force. It seems the DPP cannot now proceed with the hundreds of cases of assault of innocent victims in the current legal and judicial vacuum. I ask the Minister to state what course of action or redress is available to him.
