Kieran Griffin showed no emotion as he was sentenced to a total of three years in prison for a range of sexual offences by Judge John Aylmer at Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal.

A man has appeared in court charged with threatening to kill a female garda and her husband and making grossly offensive telephone calls to four different female gardaí at a Co Donegal Garda station.

Lawyers for a Donegal man jailed for indecently assaulting a babysitter almost 40 years ago have claimed the jury that convicted him were “pressurised” into returning a guilty verdict on a Friday evening when weather warnings were in place.

A former principal who stole €204,000 from his school for golf equipment and weekends away has been sent to jail after his original suspended sentence was deemed too lenient.

The manager of a painting and decorating shop who was caught stealing €440 from his company after it installed a secret CCTV system has been jailed for 21 months.

A farmer accused of breaking his neighbour's cheekbone in a row over a straying cow has been found not guilty.

A young man who side-rammed a Garda patrol car at 100kmph causing €4,500 of damage has been saved from going to jail by the Garda he tried to drive off the road.

A farmer accused of breaking the cheekbone of his neighbour in a row over a straying cow claims his land is constantly being overrun by cows, horses, sheep and even ducks.

A Judge has listened to the pleas of a tragic family who asked him not to jail the man whose driving led to the death of their son in a car crash in Co. Donegal.

A young student has revealed how he has become an alcoholic and has tried to take his own life after he was sexually abused by a man after a disco.

A man bit the ears of another man after catching him trying to perform a sexual act with his sister.

The response to the announcement that the Government is expected to strengthen and rename the agency entrusted with overseeing company law and investigating white-collar crime must be mixed; once bitten, twice shy, as it were.

The State’s white collar crime watchdog is set to be given sweeping new powers to help it investigate complex cases in the wake of the collapse last year of the Sean FitzPatrick IBRC trial.

A hotel guest accused of damaging four hotel rooms ran down into the lobby naked and blaming “gypsies” for the attack.

A sex offender who moved back to Ireland after committing a series of offences in England has appeared in court on child porn charges.

A man who left dozens of people trapped in an apartment block after he set fire to an underground car park has been jailed for five years.

A 13-year-old boy downloaded gay dating app onto his mother’s mobile phone while she was out and within hours was forced to perform a sex act on a 30-year-old man.

A man who ordered a gang to attack a house has been jailed after a court heard the family’s home was sprayed with nails from a nailgun.

The Court of Appeal heard that the victims were a young woman and her civil-engineering-student boyfriend who had broken up as a result of the incident.

The State’s botched investigation against ex-banker Seán FitzPatrick was undermined by the fact that untrained officials were tasked with taking key evidence because other prioritised Anglo investigations were draining vital resources.

A grandfather who became involved in a violent incident in a pet shop after his son got into a dispute about a parking space has been jailed for 18 months.

The Director of Public Prosecutions paid the three barristers who prosecuted Seán FitzPatrick just over €1m in the longest running criminal trial in the history of the state.

Public debt is still a major challenge and will remain so into the future, Government has warned.

The prosecution of Sean Fitzpatrick bore many elements of a stitch-up, writes Michael Clifford. 

The State utterly failed to protect the taxpayer from the dangers of white-collar crime all the way along, so to Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin, please spare us your outrage and your anger, suggests Daniel McConnell.

Outraged TDs are demanding a review of agencies investigating criminality and have called for the setting up of a white-collar crime bureau.

Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions have sought access for the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to transcripts of the Sean FitzPatrick trial.

IT IS a fundamental rule of law that everyone — from prince to pauper — is entitled to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial, no matter what criminal charges they face. 

Potential conflicts of interest and incompetencies evident in the prosecution of Sean FitzPatrick speak volumes about our attitudes to white-collar crime, writes Michael Clifford.

It is important that we commit to law reform and allocate resources to ensure effective investigation and prosecution, says Shane Kilcommins.

The Sean FitzPatrick judgment highlights the “difficulties and challenges” in investigating and prosecuting white-collar crime, according to a legal expert.

It follows yesterday’s decision by Judge John Aylmer to direct the jury to acquit.

A judge has ordered that former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick be found not guilty of hiding millions of euro in loans from auditors.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman, Sean FitzPatrick has said his prosecution for allegedly misleading the bank's auditors about millions of euro in loans was a difficult time for him and his family.

The trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick yesterday became the longest running criminal trial in the history of the State.

An auditor for Anglo Irish Bank has told a trial that he misled a previous trial about a statement he gave to gardaí.

Investigators into alleged crimes by former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean Fitzpatrick used “unlawful" practices when taking witness statements, his trial has heard.

A former financial controller with Anglo Irish Bank has said he was surprised that external auditors never queried the annual refinancing of the bank’s loans to former chairman Seán FitzPatrick.

Warrants obtained by gardaí to search banking premises for evidence during investigations into events at Anglo Irish Bank in 2008 were unlawful and unconstitutional, a jury has heard.

The jury in Sean Fitzpatrick’s trial have been told to return to court next week when it is hoped they will hear from the first witness.

Two jurors have been excused from serving in the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick on charges of misleading the bank’s auditors about millions of euro in loans.