IRELAND
Irish Times
Mary Carolan
Mon, Mar 2, 2015
A priest is seeking permission to bring High Court proceedings aimed at halting his trial on charges of indecently assaulting 14 boys at a secondary school in Munster.
The charges relate to alleged offences between 1969 and 1990 and the priest contends his right to a fair trial has been prejudiced due to a “fatal deficit” of disclosure, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan was told.
Margery Farrelly SC, for the priest, said that deficit arose from the refusal of the Irish Examiner newspaper to disclose documents on foot of which it had published a number of stories concerning the alleged offences.
Following a request from lawyers for the priest, gardaí had asked the newspaper to disclose any documents in its possession related to the stories published.
The stories included interviews with some former pupils of the school, some of whom might be complainants in these proceedings and whose identities were protected via the use of pseudonym, she said.
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