Department's military law report in wake of soldier's trial for assault on Natasha O’Brien costs €130k

Cathal Crotty was jailed for two years last January after the Court of Appeal overturned his suspended sentence as unduly lenient. File picture: Collins Courts

The Department of Defence spent more than €130,000 on a report analysing military law in cases where members of the Defence Forces have been convicted of serious offences.

The department commissioned the report, compiled by senior counsel Peter Ward, in June 2024 after a serving Irish soldier received a fully suspended sentence for beating Natasha O’Brien unconscious on a Limerick street in May 2022. Cathal Crotty had never met her before that.