Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1997

Amendment of section 4 of Criminal Justice Act, 1984 .

2.—The Criminal Justice Act, 1984 , is hereby amended, in section 4—

(a) by the insertion in subsection (2), after “without warrant”, of “or pursuant to an authority of a judge of the District Court under section 10 (1)”,

(b) by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (5):

“(5) If at any time during the detention of a person pursuant to this section there are no longer reasonable grounds for believing that his detention is necessary for the proper investigation of the offence to which the detention relates, he shall, subject to subsection (6), be released from custody forthwith unless he is charged or caused to be charged with an offence and is brought before a court as soon as may be in connection with such charge or his detention is authorised apart from this Act.

(6) If at any time during the detention of a person pursuant to this section a member of the Garda Síochána, with reasonable cause, suspects that person of having committed an offence to which this section applies, other than an offence to which the detention relates, and the member of the Garda Síochána then in charge of the Garda Síochána station has reasonable grounds for believing that the continued detention of that person is necessary for the proper investigation of that other offence, the person may continue to be detained in relation to the other offence as if that offence was the offence for which the person was originally detained.”,

(c) by the insertion, after subsection (8), of the following subsection:

“(8A) Where a person detained pursuant to subsection (2) is taken to a court in connection with an application relating to the lawfulness of his detention, the time during which he is absent from the station for that purpose shall be excluded in reckoning a period of detention permitted by this section.”, and

(d) by the substitution, in subsection (9), of “subsection (6), (8) or (8A)” for “subsection (6) or (8)”.