FIFTH SECTION
 
 
 
 
 
CASE OF DOYLE v. IRELAND
 
(Application no. 51979/17)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
 
 
STRASBOURG
 
23 May 2019
 
FINAL
 
23/08/2019
 
This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Doyle v. Ireland,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
 Angelika Nußberger, President,
 Ganna Yudkivska,
 André Potocki,
 Síofra O’Leary,
 Mārtiņš Mits,
 Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer,
 Lado Chanturia, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 2 April 2019,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (no. 51979/17) against Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by an Irish national, Mr Barry Doyle (“the applicant”), on 12 July 2017. 2. The applicant was represented by Fahy Bambury, a firm of solicitors based in Dublin. The Irish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Peter White, of the Department of Foreign Affairs. 3. The applicant complained that, following his arrest, he was not entitled to have a solicitor present during his police interrogation, representing a failure by the respondent State to vindicate his right to a fair trial as provided in Article 6 § 3 (c) of the Convention. 4. On 18 January 2018 notice of the application was given to the Government. THE FACTS
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
5. The applicant was born in 1985 and is currently serving a life sentence for murder in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. 6. In the early hours of 9 November 2008, the applicant killed a man in Limerick. It was a case of mistaken identity. The applicant had set out to kill another man at the behest of a well-known criminal figure in the city in the context of a feud between criminal gangs. The applicant mistook the victim, S.G., who had no connection whatsoever to the criminal milieu, for the intended target. S.G., who was 28 years old, was walking home when the applicant shot and wounded him on the street. He then pursued his victim into the back garden of a nearby house where he shot him several times, inflicting five wounds in all, including a fatal head wound. 7. On 24 February 2009 investigating police carried out a search of the applicant’s residence. They arrested him there at 7.15 a.m. He was brought to a police station shortly before 8.00 a.m. There he was informed of his rights, including a right of access to a solicitor. He requested legal advice from a particular solicitor, whom the police duly notified. At 9.55 a.m. the solicitor telephoned the police station and spoke to the applicant. This first consultation lasted two minutes. 8. The first police interview commenced at 10.12 a.m. and lasted fifty minutes. All of the interviews were video recorded, and were conducted without the applicant’s solicitor being physically present in the interview room. At no stage did the applicant or his solicitor request the presence of the latter during questioning. It was confirmed during the subsequent proceedings that, in view of police practice at that time, such a request would have been denied. 9. Another solicitor, Mr O’D., who was acting on behalf of the first solicitor, arrived at the police station at 11.00 a.m. and represented the applicant from that point onwards. The police concluded the first interview at 11.03 a.m. The applicant then had a consultation with the solicitor lasting nine minutes. The second interview commenced at 11.19 a.m. and lasted twenty-three minutes. The third interview started at 12.07 p.m. and lasted one hour and fifty-four minutes. The fourth interview began at 3.00 p.m. and had a duration of one hour and thirty-nine minutes. The fifth interview, beginning at 5.59 p.m., lasted for two hours and seven minutes. The final interview of the day took place between 10 p.m. and 11.42 p.m., a duration of one hour and forty-two minutes. The applicant, who did not request or have any further contact with his solicitor that day, did not make any admissions to police. 10. The following day, 25 February 2009, the police continued to question the applicant. Three interviews took place in the morning and afternoon, lasting almost five hours in total. The applicant was brought before the District Court, which extended his detention for a further 72 hours. His solicitor was present at the court hearing. The applicant was brought back to the police station where another interview, the tenth, took place between 10.38 p.m. and 11.25 p.m. During this interview, the police informed him that his former girlfriend, G, who was also the mother of his young daughter, had been arrested in Dublin early the previous morning on suspicion of withholding information. She was being held in detention and interviewed by police about her knowledge of the killing. He was given certain details about her replies to police questions. Once again, the applicant did not request further consultations with his solicitor and did not make any admissions. 11. The interviewing of the applicant continued on 26 February 2009. The eleventh interview began at 9.03 a.m. and lasted seventy-two minutes. Questioning recommenced at 12.22 p.m. for one hour and twenty-one minutes. The police impressed on him that G was enduring the hardship of detention as well as separation from her young daughter on account of the applicant’s refusal to admit to the crime. They also underlined the fact that the victim had been an entirely innocent man. The thirteenth interview took place between 3.02 p.m. and 4.15 p.m. During it, the applicant asked to consult his solicitor. Questioning stopped while the police made contact with the solicitor. The consultation between the applicant and his solicitor was again by telephone. It lasted approximately two minutes. 12. The next interview, the fourteenth, commenced at 5.32 p.m. In the first minutes, the police asked the applicant about text messages sent to Ms G. around the time of the murder. At some point the applicant asked to speak to his solicitor again. The interviewers replied that he had just spoken to the solicitor, to which the applicant said that he had not been able to speak to him properly. It is not clear from the documents in the case-file when this occurred. The interview continued. At around 6.15 p.m. the applicant again asked to speak with the solicitor, saying that he would answer questions afterwards. A moment later the interview was briefly suspended while one of the officers left the room to fetch a glass of water. He returned at 6.20 p.m. and for the remaining 15 minutes the officers questioned him about his background and his sporting interests. Before ending, they informed him that Ms G was alright. The interview concluded at 6.35 p.m. 13. As requested by the applicant, the solicitor arrived at the police station at 6.52 p.m. He and the applicant spoke for about ten minutes. According to a memo written by a police officer some hours afterwards, the solicitor then approached the officers conducting the interviews and told them, on an off‑the‑record basis, that the applicant was prepared to admit to the murder provided that Ms G. was released. The police replied that they wanted the applicant to tell the truth about the killing. The solicitor conferred again with the applicant for ten minutes and then informed the police that there would be no admissions before Ms G.’s release. The police replied that a confession taken in such circumstances would not be accepted in court, as it would be regarded as inducement. The solicitor then consulted with the applicant for a further 10 minutes, after which he indicated to the police that the applicant would not admit to anything prior to Ms G. being released and then left the police station. 14. The fifteenth interview commenced at 7.42 p.m. The applicant refused to answer the first two questions posed to him, but then stated that he had been present at the scene around the time of the murder. At that moment another police officer entered the interview room and stated that the applicant’s solicitor had telephoned the station and wished to speak to him. The interview was immediately suspended to allow the applicant confer with his solicitor. This consultation took about four minutes. When the interview resumed at 7.51 p.m., the applicant admitted to shooting the victim. As the interview continued, he provided a number of other details about the crime: how he had been driven to the scene in a particular car; the clothes he had been wearing and which he had burned later; how many shots he had fired, and where; the fact that he had used his right hand to shoot; the fact that the gun had jammed and that he had cleared it by ejecting bullets. He also sketched a map of the crime scene to indicate where each event had taken place. Beyond this, he refused to answer the questions put to him. The interview ended at 9.05 p.m. At the conclusion of the interview, the applicant made a particular gesture. He removed a set of rosary beads that he wore around his neck as a memento of his dead brother, and asked the police give them to the victim’s family. 15. The sixteenth interview took place between 10.09 p.m. and 11.29 p.m., a duration of 90 minutes. The police repeatedly asked him to explain why he had killed an innocent man, but the applicant refused to answer. 16. By that time, Ms G. was no longer in custody, having been released at 9 p.m. that same day. 17. There were five further interviews the next day, 27 February 2009, with a combined duration of seven hours and twenty-seven minutes. The applicant continued to refuse to answer the questions put to him about the identity of the intended victim, about his own association with a well‑known criminal figure in the city, and about calls and messages to and from his mobile phone around the date of the murder. In the twentieth interview, held that evening, he indicated on a map how the crime had unfolded, and stated that when he caught up with him in the back garden, the victim had said “please stop” just before the fatal shots were fired. 18. Two further interviews were held on 28 February, lasting two hours and three minutes in all. The police showed the applicant various items of evidence retrieved from the scene of the crime, including unfired bullets, bullet casings, bullets removed from the victim’s body, and items of the victim’s clothing. He made no comment on this or any other question put to him. At 3.15 p.m. police charged the applicant with murder and brought him before the District court. 19. The applicant pleaded not guilty. He was tried in the Central Criminal Court. The first and second criminal trials
20. The first trial, in 2011, was inconclusive, the jury failing to reach a verdict. 21. The second trial commenced on 16 January 2012 and lasted 22 days. At the outset, the applicant sought to exclude the admissions he had made to the police. In accordance with domestic law, his challenge was considered by the trial judge in the absence of the jury. This process, a voir dire (a trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of evidence) took ten days. The trial judge viewed more than twenty hours of the video records of the interviews. During that process, the recording of the interview was played on screen and then the interviewing officers gave evidence concerning the videos and were cross-examined by the legal representatives for the prosecution and defence. At the end, counsel for both sides made submissions to the judge in regard to the questions of inducement of threat, oppression and fairness. 22. On the eleventh day of the trial the judge ruled as follows:
“The defence object to the prosecution proposal to call evidence of various admissions made by Barry Doyle in the course of interviews that took place while he was in custody .... The defence contend that these admissions are inadmissible and rely on three grounds.
1)  That the admissions were made involuntarily as a result of a combination of threats, inducements and oppression.
2)  That the admissions were made as a result of breaches of the accused’s constitutional right of access to legal advice.
3)  The admissions were made as a result of breaches of the requirement of fundamental fairness.
... The onus of proof in respect of admissibility is on the prosecution and if confessions are to be admitted in evidence the Court must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that it is proper to do so.
... With regard to the question of legal access Barry Doyle had two consultations with his solicitor while he was in [the police station] prior to making admissions and he was also represented by that solicitor in court when an application was made to extend his detention. The Court does not consider the length of time that either consultation lasted to be relevant in the context of this case. The Court also holds that the [police] were entitled to continue interviewing Barry Doyle in interview 14 when he had complained that a short telephone conversation with his solicitor was not a proper consultation and when his solicitor’s arrival at the [police] station was expected within an hour. The Court is satisfied that there was no breach of Barry Doyle’s constitutional right to legal advice. In considering the question of oppression the Court observed Barry Doyle in video recordings over a period of in excess of 20 hours and holds that he appeared to be physically and mentally strong throughout. He engaged with the [police] when he chose to do so and refused to answer questions when he did not wish to do so. ... With regard to the questioning by [the police officers], the Court finds that the interviews were conducted in a careful, patient and structured way in which some of the results of the [police] investigation were gradually revealed to Barry Doyle. The Court also holds that Barry Doyle first began to engage with [the police] in a limited way, essentially as a result of [their] appeal to Barry Doyle’s humanity. This engagement was built on ... and ultimately the accused told the [police] about his involvement in the death of [S.G.]. The Court holds that the interviews conducted by [police] were at all times professional and courteous and involved no oppression. The Court also holds that Barry Doyle was in full control of himself throughout the interviews and holds that he made the admissions that he did because he chose to do so. With regard to the question as to whether some of the promptings by the [police] to Barry Doyle to the effect that he should tell the truth and not keep [G] away any longer from their child, the question arises as to whether this, or any other related promptings made prior to interview 15 and relating to the release of [G], could amount to an inducement. The first thing to be said is that these remarks must be viewed in the overall context of all that had taken place, which included the various responses of Barry Doyle regarding the death of his brother, the responses regarding his own family, his children by a previous relationship to his relationship with [G], as well as read or taken in the context of the limited answers he had given about living in Limerick and the fact that he had conceded ... that being in custody on suspicion of the murder of [S.G.] was the lowest point in his life. The context also includes the gradual unfolding of the evidence in the case to him and the context further includes numerous appeals to him to tell the truth. Notwithstanding the context in which they occurred, ... even if these promptings could possibly amount to an inducement when objectively viewed they were not immediately acted on and their effect, whatever it may have been, was dissipated by the consultation Barry Doyle had with his solicitor and his solicitor’s interaction with [the police]. This broke any possible causative link and it is highly relevant that the solicitor told the detectives that Barry Doyle would not admit to the offence and that they would have a bit more work to do. The Court holds that when Barry Doyle came to make his admissions in interview 15 he made them voluntarily. Accordingly, the Court holds that the admissions were made not as a result of oppression and were not made as a result of any threat or inducement. Finally, the Court has considered the objection made by the defence that the admissions were made as a result of a breach of fundamental fairness. The Court has considered all the objections in the round and bears in mind [the relevant Supreme Court case-law].

Outcome for Article 6: no_violation