Gardaí restrain defendant as factions face off at Cork courthouse

Gardaí had to restrain a defendant and prevent feuding factions from engaging in a violent confrontation outside a Cork courthouse yesterday.

Proceedings at the district court in Youghal were disrupted during a prolonged fracas. One eyewitness said that the scenes inside and outside the room were “very frightening”.

He said Judge Terence Finn had threatened to move proceedings to another jurisdiction.

According to the eyewitness, relatives — including several children — of a man on remand, and in handcuffs, could be heard engaging in “screeching and threats” with a third party or parties as the court proceedings commenced.

The disturbance emanated from a ground floor reception area and a staircase connecting it to the courtroom.

Judge Finn had advised that the court premises was “not a creche” and, according to an eyewitness, had ordered the noise be quelled.

The intrusions continued and a defendant, in handcuffs, tried to leave the custody benches in court to partake in the confrontations.

The eyewitness said: “He appeared to get free of the handcuffs for a while.”

Gardaí and prison officers reportedly took “about 10 minutes” to restrain the man who, at one stage, was on the floor of the court as “mayhem continued downstairs”, the eyewitness said.

The man on remand was eventually removed from the room, but noise and threats recommenced from outside the court, said the eyewitness.

He said: “I heard the judge say he could not run a courtroom in this shambles. He also threatened to move proceedings to Dungarvan.”

Eventually, order and calm were restored and the court resumed. “It had stopped and started about four times in two hours,” said the eyewitness.

Youghal District Court currently sits in the Mall House, home of Cork County Council’s Municipal District Offices.

The courtroom also serves as a theatre and exhibition centre, and is rented to the Courts Service for approximately €8,000 per annum.

Nearby, a three-storey Courts Service building was opened in 2009. It is leased from developers at €120,000 per annum with a break option from 2033.

The building also has courtroom capacity, high-speed fibre optic broadband, CCTV in every quarter, as well as state-of-the-art holding cells that were never used.

The partly used building also has reception areas, spacious offices, four consultation rooms, conference spaces, a kitchen, and three toilets per floor.

Previously, solicitors had argued, without success, for court hearings to be transferred there.