Chaos forecast with transfer of Central Criminal Court

COURT cases in Limerick could be thrown into chaos when the Central Criminal Court sits there next month, according to a leading solicitor.

“We already have a huge backlog of civil and family cases and this will make matters even worse,” said Ted McCarthy, president of the Limerick City and Bar Association. “The Central Criminal Court will hold mostly rape and murder trials. I cannot see how you can run a civil court alongside cases of serious crime.”

Mr McCarthy said the newly-renovated building was unsuited to mixing serious crime trials with civil hearings, adding: ““Some matters will relate to feuds and could involve people from the Limerick area itself. You can’t have a situation where the ordinary public are afraid to come to the court.”

The Central Criminal Court will sit for four weeks in Limerick, from July 8, and for a further four weeks in November. It is the first time the court will sit outside Dublin. After the November hearings, it will become a permanent fixture in Limerick, sitting up to 12 weeks a year.

“That means, effectively, bringing in an extra court. We already have a backlog, because we do not have enough judges in Limerick,” said Mr McCarthy.

A spokesman for the courts service said there would be adequate court facilities to hold major criminal trials in Limerick. “The presidents of the High Court and Circuit Court are meeting to ensure there will be no clash,” he said.

However, Mr McCarthy said there were also significant functional design problems with the renovated building. An engineer’s report, commissioned by the Limerick Bar Association and given to the courts service and the Department of Justice, concluded the refurbished building was more suited to use as a hotel.

“The architects, basically, designed it to be visually appealing but what they have done has affected the functionality of the building,” Mr McCarthy said. “There is a glass stairs in the middle and this is to bring in light, no doubt, but it also lets in heat and on sunny days it is stifling. I have great sympathy for staff on the top floor. When they moved in to their office, it was so bright they could not read their computer screens and they had to stick up pieces of brown paper on the windows to block out the light.”

Mr McCarthy described acoustics in the main courtroom as abysmal and said it was problematical, not only for witnesses but also lawyers and even judges.

“Sometimes it’s impossible to hear what’s going on,” he said.

On May 22, a trial had to be aborted when the jury heard inadmissible evidence by mistake after a garda giving that evidence had failed to hear the judge’s order.