Charlie McMenamin
Charlie McMenamin was arrested at his home at the age of 16 for crimes that allegedly took place when he was 14. He was interviewed extensively and did not have access to a solicitor or appropriate adult until two days later after he had made the statements of admission that the Crown relied on at trial. McMenamin was convicted by a non-jury Diplock court. On appeal, McMenamin contended that he had been subject to beating and police torture and that the confessions he made were untrue. He wanted to plead not guilty to charges that he had an alibi to but stated that his lawyer advised him that only by pleading guilty could he expect to have some charges dropped. After he was sentenced his lawyer advised him not to appeal as he had achieved a good result. It became clear he had pled guilty to an offence he could not have committed and to another offence that it was believed never occurred. This left the court with a significant sense of unease about the correctness of the convictions and the remaining counts he had pled guilty on. Accordingly the court quashed all convictions.
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< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Murder Other
- Jurisdiction: Northern Ireland
- County: Unknown
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 3
- Offence convicted of: Belonging to a proscribed organisation; having a firearm with intent; conspiracy to murder; possession of a firearm with intent; possession of a firearm and having a firearm with intent; collecting unlawful information (2).
- Year of crime: 1976
- Year of initial conviction: 1980
- Year conviction was overturned: 2007
- Age when imprisoned: 18
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: N
- Link to full case: https://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NICA/2007/22.html
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Other
- Compensation: Unknown
- Crown argued case at CofA: Unknown
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: None