A young man who absconded from an open prison and lived "in plain sight" for more than four years before re-arrest has won Supreme Court declarations that his re-arrest and subsequent detention to serve out the rest of his 16-month sentence were unlawful.

The Court of Appeal was incorrect in overturning a €900,000 damages award for defamation to a man called a drug dealer by a newspaper, the Supreme Court has found.

A couple must demolish a house they built in “flagrant breach of the planning laws”, a five-judge Supreme Court has ruled.

A 16-year-old girl at high risk of being sexually exploited by men should be placed in a secure unit for troubled teenagers, the High Court has heard.

A case where a man armed himself with screwdrivers and a knife to intimidate two others who had threatened him to leave his home within 24 hours for singing, ended with a one-year jail sentence yesterday.

The future of a partly developed hotel and holiday complex, within sight of the Rock of Cashel, will be decided at a full High Court hearing as a result of South Tipperary County Council losing its case to have preliminary issues clarified first.

Creating waste to boost profits of a multi-national’s incinerator in Dublin Bay is a nightmare scenario, says Victoria White

The High Court has directed the continued tube feeding of a young woman dramatically losing weight due to anorexia nervosa.

A 16-year-old Co Dublin schoolgirl, who is six months pregnant and beyond the control of her family, has been committed to secure care by the High Court.

Businessman Paul Begley will be freed from jail in less than seven months after his record six-year sentence over a €1.6m garlic import duty scam was cut.

A convicted Waterford child abuser has been released on bail pending an appeal against his four-year sentence.

Fruit and vegetable importer Paul Begley will have to wait a little longer to find out what his new sentence for a tax fraud will be.

The Court of Criminal appeal has quashed a man's conviction for the oral rape of a young woman because the judge at his trial referred to matters he should not have in his charge to the jury.

A Kerry man who raped his former girlfriend and threatened to kill her during a prolonged attack involving “violence of the most gratuitous nature” has failed in an appeal against his 10-year sentence.

THE Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed a British man’s appeal against the severity of a 25-year sentence for possession of cocaine in the state’s largest case of drug smuggling.

DIFFICULTIES over the provision of psychiatric services to a troubled 16-year-old girl who twice tried to hang herself in recent days have been resolved, the High Court has heard.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of a Dublin man seeking to have his conviction overturned for the double murder of two Polish mechanics.

The Court of Criminal Appeal today heard that the jury who convicted a Dublin man of the double murder of two Polish mechanics arrived at their verdict appropriately, having been given fair and balanced directions by the trial judge.

A Dublin man who was found guilty of the double murder of two Polish mechanics has begun an attempt to have his conviction overturned at the Court of Criminal Appeal.

A notorious rapist has failed in an appeal against his conviction for the rape of an 85-year-old woman suffering with Alzheimer’s disease but has succeeded in having the last two years of his 21-year sentence suspended.

The appeal brought by a rapist against his 21-year sentence for the rape of an 86-year-old woman suffering with Alzheimer’s disease has been adjourned for more than a week.

Transgender persons are still being denied legal recognition of their true identity, writes Tanya Ní Mhuirthile

A Cork man has failed in his appeal against his conviction for the murder of a 62-year-old retired barman over two years ago.

A MUSICIAN, a Supreme Court judge, the surgeon who led the team that separated Ireland’s conjoined twins, and a senior executive of a pharmachem giant will be honoured by their former college this week.

The State has succeeded in increasing the sentence handed down to a former garda sergeant who incited a prostitute to find him children to have sex with.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has upheld the six-year sentence imposed on a legally blind man who strangled a 60-year-old after calling to his apartment to service his computer.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has refused a north Dublin businessman leave to appeal against his 10-year sentence for raping a foreign tourist in a Killarney hotel over five years ago.

MCKECHNIE CLEANING SERVICES has followed its recent ConcoPhillips Business of the Year Award by beating off stiff competition to win the national contract for VHI Swift Care.

High Court Judge Liam McKechnie has been appointed to the Supreme Court, a government spokesman said today.

A man accused of raping and assaulting his wife at a house in Co Meath admitted he had been living at the premises for two months despite a barring order against him being in place.

KILLARNEY jarveys are to appeal to the Supreme Court after the High Court ruled they would have to use dung catchers on their horse-drawn carriages.

KILLARNEY’S jarveys have lost their bid to lift a court order which bars them from entering Killarney National Park until they agree to attach dung catchers.

Brutal, savage and sadistic is how the murder of two Polish men was described by the judge who jailed their killer today.

FOR more than half of its 180 years, Mount William has been in the same family’s ownership — but now, reluctantly, comes the time to sell.

A former principal biochemist with the Blood Transfusion Service Board who had been charged in relation to the infection of women with Hepatitis C has had an application for legal costs refused.

The High Court has today quashed a coroner's decision to exclude a Health and Safety Authority (HSA) report at the inquest into the death of a 22-year-old woman in a traffic accident.

DUBLIN’S four localauthorities abused theirpositions of dominance by changing the rules on waste collection to exclude private operators, the High Court ruled yesterday.

A HIGH Court judge has found two vintner’s organisations guilty of contempt of court after they introduced a one-year price freeze from last December.

The High Court has been asked to decide whether two publicans' organisations are in contempt of Court arising from their announcement of a drinks price freeze.

THE High Court is to hear an assessment of a claim for damages due to former rally driver Rosemary Smith over the size of an apartment provided for her in an agreement where she vacated her former family home.

THE High Court is to hear an assessment of a claim for damages due to former rally driver Rosemary Smith over the size of an apartment provided for her in an agreement where she vacated her former family home.

A Co Kildare company director was given a nine months suspended prison sentence and fined a total of €100,000 for fixing car prices as a member of a cartel by a judge at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today.

A motor company and its director will be sentenced next month by the Central Criminal Court for fixing car prices as a member of a cartel, in breach of the Competition Acts.

ENTERTAINER Chris Tarrant and his wife Ingrid have settled their divorce — with the former Mrs Tarrant getting about half of the TV star’s £25 million fortune (€31.7m).