Redmond trial to go ahead in March

The trial of former Dublin Assistant County Manager, Mr George Redmond, on corruption charges is to ahead next March after Judge Joseph Matthews rejected an application by the defence to stay the proceedings.

Mr Redmond (aged 82) has pleaded not guilty to receiving Ir£10,000 on a date between June 1, 1985 and June 1, 1986 as an inducement or reward for doing or forebearing to do anything in respect of a compulsory purchase order by Dublin City Council on 167 acres of land situated at Bussardstown and Coolmine.

Mr Redmond's trial was originally due to start on February 16, 2006 but due to certain newspaper articles concerning the accused, Judge Matthews said that while he concluded it was possible to have a fair trial notwithstanding the adverse publicity, he invoked the 'fade factor' and listed it for July 2006.

For administrative reasons it was adjourned to November 2006 when Mr Redmond applied to have the matter adjourned 'sine die' and Judge Matthews said he again adjourned it "to allow for the operation of the 'fade factor' for a period of not less than six months" and listed it for July 2007.

Judge Matthews noted that on July 2 last the proposed trial was again adjourned to October 2007 because of media reporting of evidence in the Quarryvale Module at the Mahon Tribunal which discredited the accused.

Judge Matthews then fixed a date in November for the hearing of applications by prosecuting counsel, Ms Pauline Walley SC (with Mr Patrick McGrath BL) and defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, instructed by Mr Kevin Walsh, solicitor, on the legal issues surrounding this case and the October trial date was vacated.

Judge Matthews has now ruled that the case is to be listed for trial in the second week of March 2008 and that on the appropriate date the trial judge can issue "appropriate warnings and directions" both before a jury is empanelled and during the trial to ensure it will "well and truly try the issue in accordance with the evidence".

"Whilst the subject matter in the exhibits attached to the affidavits of Mr Kevin Walsh are adverse in a sense to the reputation of Mr Redmond, I am not satisfied that the applicant has discharged the onus of establishing that it will as a matter of probability lead to real and unavoidable risk of an unavoidably unfair trial such as to justify adjourning the matter with liberty to re-enter."

Judge Matthews noted that since Mr Redmond's original return for trial on November 9, 2001, it had been deferred on a number of occasions to ensure that his constitutional right to a fair trial was not put at risk as a result of adverse publicity from continuous media coverage in relation to the accused himself, his appearances before the Mahon Tribunal and before the criminal courts.

However, Judge Matthews said, that while the courts had throughout the years made various orders designed to ensure Mr Redmond got a fair trial, he (Judge Matthews) along with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, then of the High Court and Judge Michael White, "refused to make any order either prohibiting or permanently staying the trial of the accused on any of these charges".

Judge Matthews said at the July 2007 hearing that the media had a duty to report on matters of public interest, such as the Mahon Tribunal and while it had been "very professional" in doing so and refraining from reporting on Mr Redmond's then upcoming trial, he agreed it was "fair and reasonable on the balance of justice" to adjourn the case to a time when the Quarryvale Module would be over and the evidence of former property developer Mr Thomas Gilmartin was no longer in the spotlight.

He said there was nothing that could be done to stop "the drip feeding" from the Mahon Tribunal in relation to evidence that could weaken Mr Redmond's character. Judge Matthews said then that the case had to be adjourned because "it's the wrong time" and the "parallel issues of the Mahon Tribunal will make it difficult for Mr Redmond to have a fair trial".