"Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring outlined in his judgement last September that permission was not given to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consent to the prosecution until 22 May a day after O hAnnaidh was charged. If 22 May was considered to be the date of the charge, that was six months and one day after the London gig where the offence allegedly took place."
"This was invalid as the permission of the Attorney General had not been obtained at that time. It follows that no written charge was issued within 6 months of 21 September 2025 and the judge was right to hold that he had no jurisdiction to try any summary only offence alleged to have been committed on that date."
The High Court in London dismissed the CPS appeal against a 28-year-old member of Irish language rap trio Kneecap, overturning terror charges related to allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a London venue in November 2024. The court found the prosecution invalid because the Attorney General's permission was not obtained before the initial charge was issued on 21 May 2025. Since the permission came one day later on 22 May, the charge violated the six-month statutory time limit from the alleged offense date. The magistrate's earlier ruling was upheld, establishing that no valid written charge existed within the required timeframe, leaving the court without jurisdiction to proceed with the summary offense.
Read at www.bbc.com
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