Government moves to impeach Curtin as child porn case collapses

THE Cabinet will meet next week to consider taking the unprecedented action of impeaching a serving judge, following the collapse of the trial of Judge Brian Curtin on charges of possessing child pornography.

No judge has ever been removed from office since the foundation of the State. And last night, a senior legal source said that such a move was possible but would take the Oireachtas into "uncharted waters" that would be fraught with Constitutional difficulties.

The source said that since the controversy over judicial interference in the Philip Sheedy case, it has been recognised that any resolution passed by the Dáil and Seanad to impeach a judge would "not stand up in the courts."