The district court in Portlaoise has ruled that a man accused of possession of child pornography cannot be named until he is arraigned.
Judge David Anderson was giving his ruling yesterday on an application from The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, RTÉ and the Examiner that he lift his ruling made on July 4th last, when he said the accused could not be identified.
Judge Anderson referred to a Supreme Court case, The Irish Times v Ireland, which established the right of the media to report trials, based on the constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public.
He said that the ruling in this case referred to trials, not the pre-trial process. "I do not intend to fetter the constitutional protection of the trial process in any way," he said.
However, he said the administration of his office required that he protect the constitutional rights of the accused. "I have the right to protect the rights of the accused at the preliminary stage."
At this stage the accused man did not know what evidence was against him and might not until the date of the trial and he was entitled to some protection and to his good name until then.
"I am also swayed by the basic unfairness that at any time until the arraignment the case against him can be withdrawn," he said. "I am not satisfied that the presumption of innocence gives him sufficient protection."
Earlier Judge Anderson asked the solicitor for the DPP, Mr Eugene Tormey, for the answers to two questions he had raised at an earlier hearing.
These concerned the attitude the DPP was taking to a complaint that had apparently been made on behalf of the accused that certain press coverage after the July 4th hearing had tended to identify him, contrary to the order, and whether the coverage of the case had been in breach of the Criminal Procedure Act 1967, restricting the information that can be given about a case after an accused is charged.
Mr Tormey said the gardaí had been asked to investigate whether there was a breach of the July 4th order.