Judge complains of antiquated law

The trial judge in a case of a Louth man charged with murdering his infant nephew today complained that the law on insanity in Ireland is rooted in the 1800s and that the legislature has been slow to change it.

In his charge to the jury in the trial of David Brennan, accused of murdering 17-month-old Jack Everitt Brennan, Mr Justice Carney said Ireland's insanity laws have never been reformed in the entire history of the state. The issues in this case "may provoke a debate in the Dail" or on Questions and Answers, and inevitably a minister responds and "says a piece of legislation is on the way, But, he said, "it never comes and "we're back to the 1880s" and to the era of Queen Victoria.