30 Jul Sallins case back in Court
We act on behalf of Miscarriage of Justice victim, Mr Osgur Breatnach, who was wrongfully arrested, interrogated, tortured and wrongly convicted in connection with the Sallins Train Robbery in 1976. His conviction was eventually quashed solely on the ground that a false confession beaten out of him was declared inadmissible in court.
However, our client has never been fully exonerated given The States failure to concede that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice. To help remedy this long running justice deficit, a Petition was served on the Minister for Justice requesting a statutory public inquiry or commission of investigation into human rights breaches in The Sallins Train Robbery investigation together with an application to the UN Committee Against Torture on behalf of all the Sallins victims.
The RTE documentary entitled “Crime and Confessions” focused on a series of Gardai investigations into an inner cabal of corrupt Gardai officers known as “The Heavy Gang” who systemically tortured and extracted false ‘confessions’ from detainees during the 1970s and 80s. Osgur Breatnach was one of their many victims.
RTE’s The Whistleblower documentary by Cormac Breatnach (Osgur’s brother) highlighted the ill-effects on Osgur’s wider family.
The issues highlighted in these programs helped inform the various legal initiatives taken on behalf of Osgur.
To complete his challenge we have filed an application to the Court of Criminal Appeal under section 9 of The Criminal Procedure Act 1993 certifying that a newly discovered fact or facts point to a miscarriage of justice which led to the Applicant’s wrongful robbery conviction on 13 December 1978. The application is grounded on the extensive facts and information now known about The Heavy Gangs’ antecedents, none of which were previously known to the applicant and his advisors at the time of Mr. Breatnach’s trial and appeal.
The court of criminal appeal sat today 23 July 2025 for the first preliminary hearing of Mr Breatnachs application. A hearing date has now been fixed for 6th October 2025.
Speaking after todays hearing, Irish Human Rights lawyer Kevin Winters said,
“We say the information now widely known about the Gardai who tortured Osgur together with the systemic practices of the so called “Heavy Gang” requires fresh judicial oversight. We are confident the court will engage positively on what we feel is a credible and strong application.
It has taken a long time to get to the point for Osgur. I commend his absolute determination and resolution to see this through to a conclusion. He isn’t alone as history has shown repeatedly that the road to getting justice and closure is often replete with delay and obfuscation. To that end The Sallins injustice debacle is no different from so many other long-running unresolved miscarriages where victims still await their day in court. Osgur’s first day in court after nearly half a century arrived today. He looks forward to the hearing date fixed this morning.”