Application by Lunney abductor Harte must be on notice to DPP

The High Court has directed that an application by Alan Harte, who was convicted of kidnapping and torturing Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney, must be served on the Director of Public Prosecutions. Harte, aged 41, was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court in 2022 for the offence committed in Ballinagh, County Cavan in September 2019. His application seeks to challenge the constitutionality of Section 40 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939, which prevents disclosure of whether a Special Criminal Court verdict is unanimous or by majority decision. Harte's legal team argues this provision breaches constitutional guarantees of equality and the requirement that justice be administered in public. Mr Justice Charles Meenan indicated the application has limited merit but directed that any leave application proceed in the presence of the DPP's legal representatives. The matter has been adjourned to May.