MR. O'BEIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the sixteenth section of the Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act gives any power to a resident magistrate, before whom witnesses may be summoned under that section, to make his court of inquiry a secret one; whether the examination is ordered to be held "at a police office, or the place where the petty sessions for the district in which the offence has been committed are usually held," and is several times declared to apply only to an inquiry concerning a specific offence; whether, nevertheless, inquiries under the sixteenth section have been held in gaols and in police barracks, and in Dublin Castle, and have ranged over a vast variety of general topics; whether a committal for refusal to participate in an inquiry thus conducted is legal; and, in the absence of publicity, what guarantee is afforded to a witness so interrogated that his answers will be truly taken down, and that he will not be subject to irresponsible imputations on his character, from the suspicions of the public on the one hand, and from the designs or malice of officials on the other?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, in reply to the Question of the hon. Member, I have to state that the 16th section of the Crimes Act does not require an inquiry instituted under it to be conducted in public, and if, in the opinion of the magistrate conducting it, it is necessary that the inquiry should not be open to the public, it is lawful for him to conduct it in private, and I have to add that, by the ordinary law, in all cases of persons charged with indictable offences the examination of the witnesses by a magistrate may be conducted either in public or in private. I have further to say that certain of the inquiries under the section referred to were held in the Metropolitan Police Office, which is situated in the Lower Castle Yard. As regards also some of the prisoners in Kilmainham, who became approvers, and volunteered evi- 1716 dence, their informations were taken in prison, but they were so taken under and by virtue of a warrant, issued pursuant to the Dublin Act, 5 & 6 Vict. c. 24, under which Divisional Justices may be authorized to sit for the discharge of their ordinary duties at any place within the Metropolitan Police District—to take an information from a willing witness. This is part of the ordinary duty of a magistrate—and not under the Crimes Act, although some of them were erroneously described by the clerk as being also taken under the Act. I have made inquiries from the Criminal Investigation Department, and have been informed, that except as I have mentioned, they are not aware of any inquiries having been conducted in gaols or police barracks, and in the last inquiry instituted, and which is at present pending at Cork, strict directions were given for the holding of the inquiry as directed by the Act. I have to add that I have no reason to doubt the validity of any committal made by the magistrates conducting these inquiries, which have, in all cases, been confined to the topics connected with and arising out of the specific offence, the subject-matter of the inquiry; and to avoid the necessity of hon. Gentlemen asking a Question on the subject I may say that Mr. O'Connor's letter was written without a knowledge of the nature of the question which was going to be addressed to him. As regards the last paragraph of the hon. Member's Question, I have to state that the inquiries referred to have been conducted, and are being conducted by the responsible magistrate designated for that purpose by the Statute, and whose integrity and character have, up to the present, proved, and will, I have no doubt, continue to prove a sufficient guarantee for the upright discharge of their duties.
MR. O'BEIENasked whether there was any objection to persons examined as witnesses getting legal assistance, considering that these examinations were generally preliminary to subsequent charges?
§ MR. TREVELYANI cannot answer that Question on my own authority.