Curtin case collapse – Bungling by State lets public down

SERIOUS questions demand serious answers, none more so than those left hanging after the collapse of the Judge Brian Curtin child pornography case yesterday.

In what was obviously going to be a highly sensitive and high-profile case, how could experienced gardaí have bungled so badly in failing to execute a search warrant of the judge's house within the warrant's timescale? And how, when it was so patently obvious that the State's case was fatally flawed because of the warrant issue, could the DPP have insisted on pressing ahead with a prosecution? Given the extremely serious issues at the heart of this trial, the public must get answers to these questions.

The case was essentially withdrawn for lack of evidence, because some evidence could not be introduced due to the manner in which it had been seized.