Murdered man’s brother jailed for contempt of court

The brother of a man murdered eight years ago was sentenced to two weeks in prison for contempt of court during an eviction hearing at the Circuit Court in Trim.

Paul ‘Cotty’ Coddington, aged 45, from Drogheda, whose brother Roy was shot dead on Mornington beach in Co Meath in 2007, has been heavily involved in advising distressed mortgage holders.

He was taken from the body of the courtroom last Thursday by officers of the court after he was allegedly spotted taping proceedings.

However, his family said they had not been officially notified, until yesterday, of Mr Coddington being admitted to prison.

His son Graeme Devine, 27, said the family was outraged. “What has annoyed me was that the first I heard of this was when it was all over Facebook.

“Nobody had the decency to inform the family of what was going on.

“I rang his brother Joseph and he had heard nothing either.”

Yesterday, Mr Devine went to a Garda station in Co Louth and reported his father missing.

He said gardaí informed him his father had been taken to a prison in Portlaoise.

“But I can’t get any official confirmation of that,” he said. “I’m not making any comment on the rights and wrongs of the matter, but surely somebody in authority should have got in touch with the family and had the decency to tell us what had happened, and let us know where he was.”

It emerged that Mr Coddington had been sitting beside a person who had been addressing Judge Leonie Reynolds on eviction issues when he was removed from the court

When Mr Coddington was brought back before the judge some time later, he showed visible signs of having been involved in a struggle.

When he failed to purge his contempt, he was sentenced to two weeks in jail.

At that point, Finbar Markey, general secretary of the National Land League of Ireland stood up and requested the judge inquire from gardaí how Mr Coddington had sustained injuries. When he continued to make his point after being ordered to sit down, he was arrested for contempt, but later successfully purged this.

A video has emerged which reportedly shows an incident involving a long wooden plank, as people protested outside the court afterwards. The clip was posted on YouTube.

Mr Markey said yesterday: “There was a peaceful protest outside the court, and there was no issue inside it either. Our members were respectful of the court’s authority, when guards moved in and took this man out.

“I didn’t know him, but it was clear he had somehow upset them, and it seems they suspected he may have been recording what was going on, but there doesn’t appear to be anything to back that suspicion up.

“When he was brought back in he was heavily bruised so I asked the judge if she could establish how this had happened. I was told to stop but again asked the same question and was arrested.”

Mr Devine added: “My dad would be strong-minded — he’d stand up for his principles.”