Muckamore Abbey Hospital: Former employee facing prosecution over alleged patient abuse loses legal challenge to public inquiry

The ex-member of staff claimed the probe’s terms of reference unlawfully involved examining potential criminal behaviour during a period predating the devolution of policing and justice powers.

But a judge rejected arguments that the tribunal had gone beyond its legal powers.

Mr Justice Scoffield said: “The mere fact that the conduct concerned could be said to amount to a criminal act is no bar to the Inquiry.”

The public inquiry is examining allegations of abuse at the hospital in Co Antrim over a period between 1999 and 2021.

It was announced and established by former Health Minister Robin Swann following a major police investigation into claims that vulnerable patients were subject to ill-treatment in Muckamore Abbey.

Judicial review proceedings were issued by one of a number of former employees who have been charged in abuse offences on dates in 2017.

Granted anonymity, the ex-member of staff contended that the Inquiry is illegally considering issues of criminal justice which remained reserved between 1999 and 2010.

A further challenge was mounted against a decision by the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Health that the terms of reference cannot be amended in the absence of a Minister.

The Department resisted the claim by insisting that the Inquiry’s scope does not go beyond its properly permitted legal bounds.

It also stressed that the Permanent Secretary has no power to make any changes, even if he wanted to.

Ruling on the challenge, Mr Justice Scoffield held that the Inquiries Act 2005 “put clear blue water” between any impermissible trespass into criminal justice matters.

He pointed out that the ongoing tribunal is examining the adequacy and propriety healthcare to vulnerable patients, and if any conduct fell well below the required standards.

“Simply by asking whether patients were abused by healthcare staff who were charged with their protection or care is not, in my judgement, to deal with the criminal law,” the judge said.

“Put another way, the issue of abuse is being considered through a healthcare lens.”

Claims that the Permanent Secretary wrongly failed to intervene were also rejected.

“The setting and amendment of inquiry terms of reference are Ministerial functions and not a

departmental function,” he said.

Dismissing the legal challenge, Mr Justice Scoffield added that the former employee who has been charged in connection with events in 2017 lacked sufficient legal interest to advance a case.

He stated: “If the terms of reference were amended to remove consideration of matters

earlier than April 2010, this would be of no practical or material significance to (the applicant).”

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