Newspaper found in contempt of court during Lillis case

A national daily newspaper has been ordered to donate equal sums of money to the Haiti appeal and an Irish charity for contempt of court during the Eamonn Lillis murder trial.

The Irish Daily Mirror published the name of Mr Lillis’s 17-year-old daughter on Saturday, January 30 after the trial judge had warned the media not to identify her due to her age.

The newspaper apologised today at the Central Criminal Court. Its legal team told Mr Justice Barry White that its system to insure compliance had broken down on that occasion, but that it was the only time this had happened during the trial.

Mr Justice White was reminded that the Evening Herald had also broken the order during the trial by inadvertently naming the teenager. In that instance the judge had instructed the newspaper to make two equal donations, one to a foreign charity and one to an Irish charity.

The judge gave the same instructions to the Irish Daily Mirror, again allowing the newspaper to decide on the amount to donate.

The DPP was satisfied with the order.