Dáil may remove porn case judge from office

Judge Brian Curtin could be removed from office by the Dáil, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.

Mr Ahern told TDs they may have to decide the fate of Judge Curtin in the near future.

The issue of a financial pay-off for the judge would not arise if he was removed for stated misbehaviour, Mr Ahern added.

He said the Government had considered the case at its weekly meeting and had sought a report from the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda Commissioner as to why the trial had collapsed.

They had also written to Judge Curtin and had given him one week in which to reply.

“In these special circumstances, and bearing in mind the seriousness of the charges against him, the Government decided to write to Judge Curtin in order to seek an explanation from him of the circumstances of his apparent access to a website and downloading of child pornography images from the same,” he said.

“This request of Judge Curtin is with a view to shortly making a fair and objective assessment as to whether grounds exist for a motion for removal of the judge from office for stated misbehaviour.”

Mr Ahern said the case was of profound constitutional importance.

“Confidence in the judiciary is of vital importance to a democracy and the maintenance of that confidence in the integrity of the judiciary means that in accordance with our constitutional provisions the House of the Oireachtas can, where there is stated misbehaviour, remove a judge from office,” he said.

“That is a decision that the House could have to address in the near future.

“If there are grounds of stated misbehaviour for removal from office, this is the only option. There are no alternatives.

“Moreover, monetary compensation simply does not arise. There is not provision for this and no justification for it on such removal.”

Mr Ahern said the Government had given Judge Curtin one week to supply them with his response.

“It is in everyone’s interest that this issue is resolved one way or another within a short space of time,” he added.

Judge Curtin’s trial had hardly started when the jury was directed to find him not guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee last Friday.

The court heard that when gardaí raided Mr Curtin’s Tralee home in May 2002 their search warrant had expired.

Judge Carroll Moran described submissions by the prosecution on the validity of the warrant as “untenable and nonsensical”.

He said they must have been aware of the problem and said the case should never have been brought.

Mr Curtin had pleaded not guilty to the possession of child pornography at his home on May 27, 2002.