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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 2021 29
told her to be discreet so she filled in only his
initials in her contacts.
She responded “All is good in Fuerteventura
sky. Plenty of ice cream to keep kids happy and
quiet”. The judge replied “Enjoy” with a smiley
emoji.
On her return she received another phone
call from the judge. “He asked were we back
from holidays and said my skin must look nice
now”. She says “I didn’t reply, just ignored but
now it was weird. I was still thinking there must
be something he wanted to tell me”. He wanted
her to give him her home address.
Some weeks later the judge phoned her look-
ing to meet her. She ignored calls and texts on
his mobile but eventually replied. She says she
thought he might give her advice. According to
her statement she met him in another town
during his lunch break from court. She says
she then realised “from his body language” he
was pursuing her romantically and she was
afraid. He also told her his wife must know
nothing about their meeting. She says she
hadn’t realised he had a wife.
A month later she says he again called want
-
ing to meet her immediately but she said she
was busy with her kids. He never called or
texted again. He heard her case one more time
and extended the protection order for three
months rather than the six months the woman
sought. He had kept postponing his final deci
-
sion on whether to grant a protection order.
She has heard nothing more from him. He
retired in July 2018. He had asked to have his
retirement delayed by a year and that was
agreed. Over Christmas 2017 he strangely
heard some cases – including family cases – in
his own home, apparently because he was sick.
And he spent his last six months on sick leave.
The relevant committee which must satisfy
itself as to medical fitness subsequently
A
WOMAN FROM Lithuania moved to
Ireland when she was 20 and
arranged to finish her master’s
degree while working in Kerry. She
got married in 2007. A few years
later the marriage broke down and she applied
for a protection order in the District Court. For
this and other reasons the woman went on
medication for stress.
The parties can’t be named for legal reasons.
After three appearances in the District Court,
she got an interim barring order.
Strangely, in the context of her husband
having to notify her when he visited neighbours
of hers, the Judge asked the woman and her
husband for their telephone numbers.
She was surprised at the request but her
solicitor insisted it was okay so she gave it. She
says her solicitor told her several times that if
the judge’s mood was bad he would not grant
the barring order.
Later that day, she noticed a missed call on
her mobile phone. She called back and after
some confusion realised she was talking to the
judge who had heard the case.
“I was then getting stressed out”, she said
in a statement to the Garda. “I asked was some
-
thing wrong with the case – should I go back.
The man replied ‘no everything is good with the
case. I just wanted to talk to you’. He said, ‘you
looked very beautiful today’. I said ‘Ok’. He then
said, ‘no, no really’. At this point I asked is this
a prank call. He said, ‘no, no I just rang’”. He
told her not to tell anyone he had rung.
The following month, the judge rang again,
she claims [phone screen pictured top left]. She
told him she was going on holidays and he sug-
gested they should meet when she got back.
While away, she says she received a text from
the judge [pictured lower left]. “Hi how are you?
Enjoy the sunshine”. He signed it James. He
By Michael Smith
“It’s Jmes”: the judge’s number on the
womn’s phone. When Village contcted
him on the number in lte My 2021, nd
explined wht it ws bout, he sid he hd
“nothing to sy”.
Enjoy
A menace in the
District Court
Village names a retired judge who pursued a
woman who appeared before him in family
law proceedings
NEWS
30 July 2021
declined to extend his tenure further as he was
seeking.
The judge, who was appointed by John
O’Donoghue, was not generally very well
regarded though the Healy Raes commended
him when he retired. During his time on the
bench in Kerry, his application of the court poor
box in lieu of, or in mitigation of, conviction was
widespread and a great deal of time was taken
up with bids from delinquent litigants and their
lawyers until the acceptable amount was given
a judicial nod. In 2012 his own name came up
in his court on charges that he didn’t have a
valid NCT disc on his car. He adjourned the
case immediately saying the court would be
contacting the Courts Service to ask the presi-
dent of the District Court “to get down an
independent judge to hear the case”.
The woman read in a local newspaper about
a sexual assault and several people told her the
judge was the alleged perpetrator. She then
told her lawyers what the judge had done with
her and they advised her to go to the Garda and
to employ a solicitor who specialised in crime.
She employed a well-known solicitor, who sug-
gested she might have a personal injuries claim
against the judge for the stress caused. But she
did not have much money, didn’t want to go to
court and felt the suggestion was
“nonsense”.
Her original lawyers also advised her to write
to the President of the District Court, Rosemary
Horgan. She has now written to her as well as
to the Chief Justice though extraordinarily she
has received no replies.
She made a complaint to the Garda who were
investigating the other assault that what the
judge did to her was “sextortion” but it seems
unlikely the matter was a crime. They took her
phone and retrieved the relevant texts and
details of the calls but she claims she was not
asked to provide a statement until three
months after her initial complaint, and after a
reporter submitted a query to the Garda press
oce. The Garda did not press charges.
She then complained to the Garda Ombuds
-
man, now saying that the judge had wanted to
meet her in her house for “sexual activity” but
there seems to have been little they could do
since it was a stretch to characterise the behav-
iour as criminal and therefore the Garda itself
had no role.
It was, nevertheless, entirely improper for
the judge to contact the young woman. The
problem is finding a remedy.
The department of justice says the conduct
and management of all court business, includ
-
ing court sittings, is the responsibility of the
president of each court.
However, it is also not clear what role the
president of the district court could play after
a judge retired.
Moreover, although a judge can be removed
from office for “stated misbehaviour or
incapacity”, the impeach
-
ment procedure requires
resolutions to be passed
by the Dáil and the
Seanad and has never
been successfully used.
In this instance the judge
has retired but in any
event removing him from
office would probably
have been excessive.
The truth is the matter
should have been dealt
with by the Judicial Coun-
cil which has a judicial
conduct committee to
facilitate investigation of
allegations of miscon-
duct. But it had not yet
been formed when the alleged incidents took
place and appears to have no retrospective
remit.
The woman wrote to Helen McEntee, Minister
for Justice, and she ultimately received the fol-
lowing reply:
“The Minister would once again liketo draw
your attention to the Judicial Council Act 2019.
The Actprovides for the establishment of a Judi-
cial Council, which will promote and maintain
excellence in the exercise by judges of their
judicial functions and high standards of con-
duct among judges. A Judicial Conduct
Committee was established on 30 June
2020 and will consider complaints against
judges and refer them either for informal reso-
lution or for formal investigation. The
Committee will also prepare draft guidelines
concerning judicial conduct and ethics for
adoption by the Council”.
This letter was disingenuous and cruel
because it was too late for the woman, since
the judge retired before the Council was insti-
gated in December 2019.
The incident is not the only one involving
judicial impropriety in Kerry. Or indeed the
same judge.
A second woman who had also appeared
before him in a family proceeding alleged the
judge began to frequent a hotel where she reg
-
ularly went for lunch.
She alleged that he subsequently sexually
assaulted her twice after meeting her at a book
launch in another hotel. She claims one of the
assaults was captured on CCTV, but that the
picture quality was poor. A file was sent to the
DPP, but she found insucient evidence to
bring a charge.
The second woman alleged gardaí did not
speak to the former judge for seven months and
that her clothes, which were given to the Garda
as evidence, were not properly stored.
GSOC did not uphold either of the complaints
subsequently made about the Garda handling
of their cases by each of the two women.
In January 2018 ‘Kerry’s Eye’ had splashed
on its cover , ‘Top figure in Garda sex Assault
probe; Exclusive: WOMAN MAKES SHOCKING
SEX CLAIM’. Two months later it reported that
the Garda were to question an unspecified
“high-profile” figure. The Lithuanian woman
contacted the journalist who wrote the story
and he wrote another story saying there was a
second complaint against the unnamed “top
figure”.
Too often the media are fearful to name the
culprits when they are judges. While he is inno-
cent of the second case of alleged sexual
assault, in the case of the Lithuanian woman
the criminal law, impeachment, censure by the
president of the district court and considera-
tion by the judicial conduct committee of the
Judicial Council seem all to be inappropriate or
impossible remedies for varying reasons.
Justice in this case may best be advanced
simply by the direction of public attention:
naming the former judge.
He is James O’Connor.
