An unemployed man gave two false statements to gardaí claiming he was sexually assaulted by 'X-Factor' judge Louis Walsh in a Dublin nightclub, a court heard today.

THE gardaí are haemorrhaging key staff, with many senior officers quitting the force to avoid being hit with a threatened tax on retirement lump sums as well as the pension levy.

Detectives are investigating whether a body found today on a rugged headland was that of an elderly woman who went missing from a nearby nursing home two years ago.

A 26-year old Dublin man who killed his mother two years ago was jailed for life yesterday by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.

THE mother of a missing Limerickman who may have been murdered has appealed for the return of his body.

A convicted sex offender who carried out a "serial type of abuse" on two young brothers 15 years ago has been jailed for four years by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

ONE of the country's biggest drug dealers has died of a suspected heart attack. However, the authorities are awaiting toxicology results to establish if it might have been sparked by an overdose.

A DETECTIVE told the Morris tribunal yesterday that a Garda colleague accused him of "planting" evidence on a witness during the force's investigation into the death of Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996.

A former garda accused of involvement in a £151,000 insurance fraud conspiracy in 1996 told detectives he saw a car and a truck lying in a ditch on a new Co Leitrim bypass.

SEVEN people appeared before a special sitting of Limerick District Court last night charged in connection with a “pitched battle” which could have resulted in serious injury or loss of life, gardaí claimed.

A Northern Ireland man accused of membership of an illegal organisation was refused bail in the Special Criminal Court today to prevent the commission of a serious offence.

The families of two murder victims clapped and cheered when a Central Criminal Court jury today found a 27-year-old Dublin guilty of firearms charges.

A man who was charged with the double murder of two young men whose bodies were dumped in the Grand Canal has told the Central Criminal Court the charges were dropped without explanation last Monday.

A man accused of murdering a profoundly deaf young man told gardai that he repeatedly punched the victim but that he never intended to kill him, a garda witness told the Central Criminal Court today.

A huge arms cache discovered in Northern Ireland after a van loaded with cigarettes was hijacked could be linked to the Loyalist Volunteer Force, it emerged today.