A young man arrested as a child for running an alleged explosive and firearm collection errand for one of the people convicted of the murder of Gareth Hutch wants the High Court to dismiss his prosecution over the delay.
He was arrested when just 16 for the offenses, and as a result of the delay in charging him, he will lose the anonymity he enjoyed as a child, he says.
He also faces a mandatory minimum five-year sentence if convicted of the offenses as an adult.
It is claimed that a child could be sent to a detention school or even dealt with by community order.
He was arrested in February 2016 on the M7 motorway at Mountrath, Portlaoise, traveling as a passenger in a car that was allegedly found to have a Glock firearm, two explosive devices, and an unlicensed air pistol.
The court heard that as a result of evidence gathered by gardai in the month after his arrest, it is claimed the boy had attended the “errand” meeting with Jonathan Keogh (33), who last November was one of three people jailed for life for murdering Gareth Hutch outside a north city Dublin flat complex on May 24, 2016.
Gareth was a nephew of Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, whose criminal gang is involved in a bloody feud with drug dealer Christy Kinahan.
It is claimed shortly before his arrest, the boy was brought to a north Dublin service station cafe to meet Keogh, who told him to go to Limerick, pick up a grenade, and bring it back to Dublin.
It is claimed that Keogh offered to pay €10,000 off a debt the boy owed if he did the job.
Gardai stopped the car and found the explosives and firearm, it is alleged. The boy and the driver were charged in September 2018.
Last November, his lawyers brought a High Court challenge against the Garda Commission and DPP, seeking to prohibit his trial for delay in getting the prosecution. The defendants opposed the application.
In arguments before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan on Tuesday, Vincent Heneghan SC, for the young man, said in March 2016, a month after his client was arrested, the gardai had all the necessary evidence to charge him. It included CCTV evidence of him meeting Keogh in the service station.
Instead, they waited until Keogh, who fled abroad just after Hutch was murdered, was deported from the UK, counsel said.
Mr Heneghan said Keogh was a “red herring” in expediting the case against his client. There was no good reason for the delay in charging him and having him dealt with before he reached 18 when he would have to be dealt with as an adult.
Paul Anthony McDermott SC, for the defendants, said there was never any possibility of his case being dealt with in the one-and-a-half years between his arrest and his 18th birthday, June 10, 2017.
Even if he had been charged before, he would still be 18 by the time his case came to trial and, if convicted, at his sentencing hearing.
The gardai were entitled to properly investigate all lines of inquiry about these offenses, including waiting for Keogh to give his version of the service station meeting when he returned from abroad.
Had the gardai submitted a partial file to the DPP, it would have likely been returned because all lines of inquiry had not been followed.
Counsel said there was no blameworthy delay in this case, and it was not one of those exceptional cases in which the court should exercise its discretion to prohibit the trial.
Mr Justice Noonan reserved his decision.
