Overhaul of bail and sentencing policy in NI terror cases is overdue

The Alliance Party joined unionists in supporting a motion criticising failures in the criminal justice system around bail.

The motion noted the abscond while on bail of a man held over the murder of the prison officer David Black (the man was later acquitted). It noted concern at the granting of bail in the case in the first place, the long delay before police even realised he had absconded and called on the then justice minister to take “urgent steps” to review bail policy in Northern Ireland, “with particular regard to” murder and terror cases.

Yet a Department of Justice review into the granting of bail to suspects has still not been finished, despite having been commenced in October 2016.

While the absence of a minister in that department has hardly helped things, that cannot be the full explanation for the delay. The Gillen review into issues around the handing of sexual offence cases was completed within a year or so.

Why is the handling of cases that can involve murder not, it seems, considered to be deserving of the same urgency?

This newspaper today also reports that a separate review into sentencing has not been completed almost four years later.

We have reported for years on cases involving dissident terror where lenient sentences have been given that would not be accepted in Great Britain in terror cases (where, separately, there is now a move to end 50% remission for terrorists – a reform that will exclude Northern Ireland). It is not even clear if terror sentencing is within the NI sentencing review.

The Alliance Party’s support for the 2017 bail motion was sensible and welcome. It was symbolically important too, given that it often holds the balance of power in politics.

Now Stormont is back and a justice minister is in place. We hope there will be rapid progress on bail and sentencing.