Court of Appeal rule on care worker case

Senior judges remitted the case against Patricia Young back to the District Court after deciding questions they were asked to consider did not apply.

Ms Young, 55, of Mandeville Avenue in Lisburn, originally pleaded guilty to two counts of ill-treatment of a patient, 70-year-old Ivy McCluskey.

Charges were brought against her in 2009 when video footage appeared to show her eating food prepared for the pensioner. Mrs McCluskey, who had survived a stroke and lost her speech, died after Ms Young had stopped caring for her.

Despite the care worker’s guilty pleas, the first case against her was dropped just as she was due to be sentenced in January 2011.

At the time, her lawyers raised a legal issue about the validity of the proceedings.

The summons was declared null and void because the specific consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had not been obtained in line with the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.

Fresh proceedings were then issued on February 3, 2011, with written consent of the DPP obtained the following day.

The District Judge subsequently refused a defence application to stay the case.

However, she agreed to state a case for the Court of Appeal to consider the issues.

Judges were asked to consider whether the new charges against Ms Young were invalid because consent was obtained before the first proceedings were struck out, and because the consent was given after the institution of fresh proceedings.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, sitting with Lord Justices Higgins and Coghlin, held that the purpose of the relevant section of the 1986 Order was to ensure that the decision to prosecute was made at an appropriate level.

That requirement did not prevent the DPP from exercising his power to delegate prosecutorial decisions to a public prosecutor or member of staff of the Public Prosecution Service, the court ruled.

Sir Declan said: “We have accordingly concluded that the questions posed by the learned District Judge do not arise on the facts found in this case.

“The consent of the Director was not required for the prosecution and we decline to answer either of the questions posed.

“The case will be remitted to the learned District Judge.”