Newspaper editor's case over phone seizure not suitable for video hearing, court rules

Gardaí said The Democrat editor Emmett Corcoran was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of a home repossession in Strokestown, when a number of vehicles were set on fire.

A provincial newspaper editor's legal action against gardaí and the State over the seizure of his mobile phone is not suitable for remote video hearing, the High Court was told.

Just over a year ago, Emmett Corcoran, editor of The Democrat, based in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, got an injunction preventing the Garda Commissioner from going through data on his phone which was seized as part of an investigation into incidents at a repossessed house in Strokestown in December 2018.