Refusal of request for disclosure of documents settled

A Co Galway man jailed for raping his daughter has settled proceedings over the refusal of his request for disclosure of any documents the Garda Commissioner and DPP may have related to any other allegations made by his daughter.

Patrick Naughton was sentenced in April 2002 to 11 years in prison for raping and abusing his daughter Barbara over six years. The abuse began in 1987 when she was aged nine. She waived her right to anonymity after the trial.

The case came to public prominence in 2002 when it emerged someone representing Bobby Molloy, then a junior minister, had tried to communicate with the judge handling Naughton’s trial, the now-retired Mr Justice Philip O’Sullivan.

Someone representing the Galway West TD had sought to phone the judge to clarify if he had received letters from Naughton’s sister, Anne. When passing sentence, Mr Justice O’Sullivan said it was “quite improper” any such approach should have been made. Mr Molloy resigned the next day.

Naughton, Camus, Co Galway, later lost an appeal against conviction. Subsequently, in judicial review proceedings, he challenged a refusal of the Garda Commissioner of his request for disclosure of any other allegations that may have been made by his daughter. His proceedings against the Garda Commissioner and DPP were listed before Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley.

After talks between Michael O’Higgins SC, for Naughton, and Shane Murphy SC, for the Garda Commissioner and DPP, they said the matter had been settled on confidential terms and on the basis of an agreed order, the terms of which were not disclosed.

In the proceedings, Naughton sought an order quashing a decision of the commissioner in July 2014 refusing his disclosure request. He also sought an order compelling the commissioner to assess, without regard to irrelevant considerations, whether disclosure was warranted.