Molloy apologises over rape case phone call

Junior Environment Minister Bobby Molloy has apologised for contact made on his behalf to a High Court judge presiding over a rape case.

Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan criticised the intervention in the case, which saw a 49-year-old man jailed for 11 years for the rape of his daughter, as "totally inappropriate".

In a statement, Bobby Molloy said he asked an official in his department to check on behalf of a constituent related to the accused, if a letter had been received by the judge.

The official was put through to the judge in his chambers, where the conversation was then terminated by Judge O'Sullivan.

Minister Molloy said he accepts the sequence of events should not have happened and insisted that at no stage did he suggest the judge should be contacted directly.

He concluded by apologising for any offence caused to the court, the judge, the victim and the public.