A whistleblower in the Irish Prison Service has written to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar complaining that his family is in danger of losing their home over financial penalties being imposed on him because he made claims of malpractice.

The prison service is denying that a prison officer whistleblower made a protected disclosure about the misuse of public funds despite the head of the service writing to the officer to apologise for his treatment following the disclosure.

Michael Clifford looks at one prison officer’s complaints, which were upheld by retired judge William Early, and the prison service’s response.

A Carlow solicitor, who took out a fraudulent mortgage after his father’s law firm got into trouble with the Law Society, has avoided a prison sentence.

A Carlow solicitor, who took out a fraudulent mortgage after his father’s law firm got into trouble with the Law Society, will be sentenced next week.

Two teenage girls have been charged after a Chinese man was allegedly knocked unconscious and had his phone and shoes stolen during a gang robbery in Dublin.

A teenage boy was arrested for stealing a phone at O'Connell Bridge in Dublin city centre after a tracker app located him, a court has heard.

A GAA spectator was yesterday returned for trial concerning an alleged on-pitch assault that resulted in a footballer losing three teeth and being rendered unconscious.

A cleaner has been spared jail for fraudulently claiming more than €22,000 in benefits while he had a job.

A Dublin man who fraudulently lived off Irish disability benefits for almost two years while in Malaysia, where he quit drugs and started a family, has been given suspended jail terms totalling 12 months.

THE High Court has frozen the assets of and suspended a solicitor whom it is alleged has €900,000 missing from his firms’ client accounts.

Irishman Louis Walsh received a standing ovation when he returned to ‘X Factor’ auditions in Cardiff yesterday.

A DANCE teacher was charged with making a false accusation that he was groped by X Factor judge Louis Walsh in the toilets of a Dublin nightclub.

A 24-year-old man has been charged with falsely accusing 'X-Factor' judge Louis Walsh of groping him in a nightclub.

A defrocked priest accused of possessing thousands of pornographic images of children was served with a book of evidence today and sent forward for trial before a judge and jury.

Property developer Joe McNamara has said he will stop his protests after his prosecution for parking a cherry picker truck outside Leinster House was dropped today.

A judge has refused bail to two Dublin men charged in connection with the alleged test firing of guns in one of their back gardens.

A 29-year-old man charged with killing a pensioner last year has been refused bail.

Thirty-three forgery charges have been brought against a former FÁS executive, who is accused of defrauding the state training agency of more than €600,000.

A judge today accused the Roma community of raising their children to steal saying they were responsible for “our shops being robbed blind".

Ireland's statutory rape laws apply to all cultures a judge said today during the case of a 15-year-old Romanian mother of one who is in a relationship with a man aged 20.

CONVICTED murderer Catherine Nevin had her case for alleged possession in prison of a mobile phone adjourned yesterday.

CUSTOMS believe a man they stopped carrying more than €270,000 in cash through Dublin Airport was on his way to purchase a massive haul of drugs.

A 22-year-old woman was today remanded in custody in connection with the discovery of two pipe bombs in her Dublin home.

THE husband of strangled hotelier Siobhán Kearney has been released from custody to wait at home for trial for his wife’s murder.

A 62-year-old man based in Cyprus was today charged with organising prostitution in the Dublin region.

A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy arrested in connection with a mugging appeared in court yesterday, making him the youngest child to face a criminal prosecution in Ireland in recent years.

A 15-year-old boy, who attacked a garda that had stopped him from visiting a prostitute, has been put into a detention centre for his own safety.

A 16-year-old boy’s crime spree ended today when he was detained for 15 months for 50 crimes committed over two and a half years.

Terminally-ill patients could benefit from a €10,000 donation made by an All Ireland-winning footballer to avoid a criminal conviction for breaking the jaw of another player, it emerged tonight.

An All-Ireland Championship winning gaelic footballer today escaped a jail sentence after being convicted of breaking the jaw of another player during a challenge match.

Former Down footballer James McCartan was today found guilty of deliberately breaking the jaw of a young Westmeath footballer during a challenge match.

A father has today repeated his claim that his teenage daughter was stripped naked and put into a padded cell with nothing but a sheet to cover her, when she was held in Mountjoy Prison.

A repeat teenage offender, who has 72 criminal convictions, was today detained for 15 months for offences committed after he was released early from a juvenile detention centre.

A teen repeat offender has reached his 72nd criminal conviction for offences committed after he was released early from a juvenile detention centre.

A DISTRICT COURT judge yesterday refused jurisdiction in a case of a garda accused of viewing child pornography, arguing that having images of the sexual exploitation of children was not a minor offence.

MOTORISTS stopped for speeding from Thursday onwards face on-the-spot fines of 80 and two penalty points on their licence under a radical shake-up of the country's road safety laws.

A 28-year-old Somali man has appeared in court in Co Kildare charged with the murder of his 20-month-old son.