Suspected INLA man Peter Pringle wins damages

Peter Pringle has now won his case to apply for damages under the Brady principle of not having had potentially extenuating or exculpatory evidence provided to him or the court during the trial and/or the appeal hearing for damages, which was under appeal. He had been sentenced with others to the death penalty in Ireland for the death of two gardai (Irish Police) during a botched robbery, which the prosecution claimed he had participated in to raise funds for the Irish National Liberation Army. It was well known that the paramilitary IRA and INLA resorted to racketeering (prostitution proceeds, drug trafficking, etc, to fund their activities) so this is probably why the prosecution reasoned as it did. Pringle's death sentence was commuted to 40 years jail as the death sentence had just been abolished in Ireland. After a long innocence campaign, Pringle had his sentence overturned and he was freed after serving some time. Pringle then applied for compensation.

His partner Sunny Williams of the USA had similarly had her sentence quashed after her death penalty was commuted to Life, after the man she was in a car with brutally shot dead two young policemen.

Pringle and 'Sunny' were part of an Innocence Project campaign in the USA who infamously befriended Amanda Knox - similarly acquitted - and arranged for Amanda Knox to appear on Irish TV, where she bizarrely sang 'Come out you Black and Tans', an old IRA rebel song, referring to a British regiment, causing some offence to viewers, given the Good Friday Agreement sensibilities in Ireland.

Quote:

Henry Byrne and John Morley, two officers of the Garda Síochána, the police force of Ireland, were murdered on 7 July 1980 by alleged members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) during a pursuit in the aftermath of a bank robbery near Loughglynn, County Roscommon.[citation needed] The officers' deaths provoked national outrage. Three men were apprehended, convicted, and sentenced to death for capital murder. Two of the sentences were later reduced to 40 years imprisonment while the third was overturned.

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The Irish Examiner writes yesterday:

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The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision to strike out Peter Pringle's damages claim against the State over his conviction and the 15 years he spent behind bars for crimes he did not commit. A three-judge court Court of Appeal (COA) overturned the High Court decision, on the basis that a key legal issue in the case that needed to be determined had not been addressed. Now his claim goes back to the High Court for consideration. Mr Pringle who is based in Glenicmurrin, Costelloe, Co. Galway, was sentenced to death in 1981 for the murder of the gardaí. In proceedings brought against the State, he claims it was negligent and breached his constitutional rights because crucial evidence was not disclosed to him prior to his trial before the Special Criminal Court. <snip> In 2019 the High Court, following an application by the State, dismissed Mr Pringle's damages action, which originated in the 1990s, on the grounds of inordinate and inexcusable delay. The State successfully argued it would be prejudiced by the fact that many relevant witnesses would not be available due to death and untraceability. Mr Pringle appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal.

So clearly Peter Pringle is someone with a lot of brains and tenacity who knows his way around the system to work it to his advantage.

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