Lillis sentenced to 6 years 11 months in prison
Today Eamonn Lillis
was sentenced in the Central Criminal Court to 7 years (reduced by 1 month to account for time already served) for the manslaughter of his wife Celine Cawley.
The decision of Mr Justice Barry White was based on a position that the appropriate sentence, without any mitigating factors, for the offence would be 10 years. In coming to this conclusion he had considered the prison sentences handed down in the
Wayne O’Donoghue (4 years) and
Linda Mulhall (15 years) cases particularly with regard to the coverup.
Mitigating factors in this case included the previous good character of Eamonn Lillis, the evidence this was out of character and his call to the emergency services and attempt to resuscitate his wife. Mr Justice Whyte however, noted on this point "That is the only decent act you committed on that morning." given he then went on to systematically lie about the events of that morning and blame someone else for the attack. Other negative elements were the time he took to cover up the fight was the effect of the crime on the family members, including of course his own daughter. The lack of clear remorse for what had happened, a lack of an offer of a plea to manslaughter were particularly notable:
"Your expression of remorse rings hollow to me and I consider it to be self-serving in light of the circumstances of the case."
The sentence is at the upper end for a manslaughter case.
Mr Justice Whyte went on to strongly criticise the media for their coverage of the case. He said the media media's behaviour had been "an affront to human dignity" and called for their privacy to be respected. It is clear that whilst the media serve an important role in ensuring that justice is carried out in public, that does not mean that media has a right to invade the privacy of participants in a trial.
Previously the Court of Appeal has criticised the photographing of the accused in the case of DPP v Davis in 2002. Indeed, the Supreme Court in Re R. Ltd [1989] IR 126 ruled that "the administration of justice in public [simply] require[s] that the doors of the court must be open so that members of the general public may come and see for themselves that justice is done." Any claim therefore by the media that they are acting as the guardians of justice by staking out the home of Eamonn Lillis, or by following him and his daughter on a trip into Dublin, would clearly not meet the court's view of what is protected in a case like this.
An appeal in the case is expected based in relation to the sentence imposed and possibly in relation to the Judges summing up to the jury.
Labels: Criminal Law, Eamonn Lillis, Privacy, sentencing
Mental Health Law Conference & Book Launch
The Faculty of Law, UCC, and the Mental Health Lawyers Association have announced a jointly organised conference on Mental Health Law. The event will take place in Brookfield Health Sciences Complex on Friday 26 February from 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
The conference will be followed at 4.30 p.m. by the launch of a new book on Mental Health Law and Practice by Dr Darius Whelan. Dr Mary Henry, former independent Senator, will speak at the launch.
For full details and a booking form for the conference, see www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/eventsandnews/events/mentalh2010/
Speakers at the conference include:
- Dr Mary Donnelly, Faculty of Law, UCC
Mr Mark Felton, Solicitor, Chairperson, Mental Health Lawyers Association
Ms Áine Hynes, Solicitor, Vice Chairperson, Mental Health Lawyers Association
Mr Hugh Kane, CEO,
Mental Health Commission Mr Michael Lynn, Barrister at Law
Mr Diarmaid Ring, Mental Health Service User and Activist
Dr Darius Whelan, Faculty of Law, UCC
If you wish to attend the book launch or require any further information, you should email lawevents@ucc.ie. RSVP: 19 February 2010
Labels: conferences, IMHLA, mental health
ICC reverses Al-Bashir Genocide ruling
The appeal chamber of the
ICC has today issued a
ruling reversing a decision of the pre-trial chamber on the
Al-Bashir case. Last year the pre-trial chamber had
decided that the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to charge Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide. The appeal court has now concluded that
The decision by the pre-trial chamber not to issue a warrant in the respect of the charge of genocide was materially affected by an error of law.
The case will now go back to the pre-trial chamber for them to rule on whether to add genocide to Bashir's charge sheet. The president of Sudan is already charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, extermination, torture and rape.
Sudan's response was, as would be expected, critical of the ruling claiming that it was motiviated by politics and designed to harm democratic elections due to take place in April. A senior information ministry official was quoted as saying:
This procedure of the ICC is only to stop the efforts of the Sudanese government towards elections and a peaceful exchange of power.
Labels: genocide, ICC, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan
Extended: Call for Papers – CCJHR Postgraduate Conference 29th Apil 2010
The
Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights at
University College Cork is pleased to announce its IV Annual Postgraduate Conference which will take place on Thursday, 29th April, 2010. The conference is aimed at those who are undertaking postgraduate research in the areas of crimial law, criminal justice and human rights.
The theme for this year's event is "Borders of Justice: Locating the Law in Times of Transition." The aim is to reflect upon how reactionary law making and the related rhetoric of crisis impact negatively on fundamental rights protection and the criminal law. We hope that this theme will encourage debate on the challenging and complex questions which arise when defining the remit of the law in changing and turbulent times.
This international one-day event will attract promising research scholars from Ireland, the UK and Europe in the areas of law, politics, philosophy and the related social sciences. We are especially interested in papers that relate to human rights, criminal justice, criminal law or the intersection of these fields. However, we also welcome papers dealing with issues outside these areas that fall within the broader theme of the conference. Papers will be streamed thematically, with previous years including such sessions as "Contemporary Discourse in Criminal Law", "Civil Liberties, Technology and State Security Claims" and "International Law, Human Rights and Development Policy".
The keynote address will be delivered by
Professor John Gardner of the
University of Oxford. John Gardner has been Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford since 2000. He was formerly Reader in Legal Philosophy at King's College London (1996-2000), Fellow and Tutor in Law at Brasenose College, Oxford (1991-6) and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (1986-91). He has also held visiting positions at Columbia, Yale, Texas, Princeton, and the Australian National University. In 2010 he will hodl short-term positions at Auckland and Genoa. He serves on the editorial boards of the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, and The Journal of Moral Philosophy, among others. His work extends across a wide range of topics in the philosophy of law. Currently he is working mainly in the philosophy of private law, but he has also written philosophically on topics as diverse as constitutions, discrimination, human rights, the emotions, the nature of law, and the nature of rationality. His most extensive body of work is in the theory of criminal law and some of it is collected in his 2007 book
Offences and Defences (OUP).
The best paper of the conference will receive a prize of €200 which is sponsored by the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights.
Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) to the organising committee by Friday, 19th February 2010. Successful conference submissions will be notified by Friday, 5th March 2010. Submissions and further enquires should be directed to
ucclawconf@gmail.com.
For further information, registration details etc. please visit
https://exchfe01.ucc.ie/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ucc.ie/en/ccjhr. For updates on accepted papers and the provisional programme connect with us on Twitter
https://exchfe01.ucc.ie/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://twitter.com/ucclawconf and feel free to retweet to friends and colleagues!
Please note: a CPD Certificate of Attendance of up to 5 hours will be available for this conference.
Labels: CCJHR events, conferences, John Gardner
Announcing the 4th Annual CCJHR Lecture
The
Centre of Criminal Justice and Human Rights,
Faculty of Law,
University College Cork requests the pleasure of your company at The 4th Annual Criminal Justice and Human Rights Lecture.
The 4th Annual Criminal Justice and Human Rights Lecture is to be delivered by The Honourable Mr. Justice William McKechnie, Judge of the High Court on “Respectable Criminality”and will take place on Thursday March 4th 2010 in the Aula Maxima, UCC at 6.30pm (Registration for this event will take place from 17:45)
The lecture will be chaired by Dr.David Riordan, Judge of the District Court With a wine reception to follow.
A 1.5 Hours CPD Certificate of Attendance will be issued for this event.There is No admission charge for this event.
RSVP via email:
ccjhr@ucc.ie by 10th February, 2010.
Further information:
Noreen Delea,
Department of Law
UCC
Telephone: 021-4903220
Labels: CCJHR events, Criminal Law, Dr. David Riordan, Judge William McKechnie
