An attempt by the Director of Public Prosecutions to lift an order preventing the naming of a garda charged with viewing child pornography failed in the District Court yesterday.
Judge David Anderson told the court he did not have a record of the order, made by the president of the District Court, Judge Peter Smithwick, last November.
But, he said, if there was any discretion over the matter, the proper place to hear submissions was on appeal.
The defendant, a 38-year-old man, is accused of viewing sexual images of children on a computer at Garda Headquarters last November 7th, contrary to section 6.1 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998.
The book of evidence was due to have been served on him in the District Court yesterday, but counsel for the DPP said it was not in a position to do this as the computer technician who was best placed to give evidence on the matter was away until the end of the month.
In a related submission, counsel for the DPP asked the judge to lift an order restricting publication of the garda's name. Counsel said the Constitution required justice be done in public, adding that a restriction, such at that which applied in the X case, was granted only on the basis that the court felt there was a real risk of the accused person not getting a fair trial.
Mr Martin Moran, for the defendant, said he was not in a position to deal with the application as yesterday was the first he had heard of it. Mr Moran said the DPP consented to the original order and had not explained why it was changing its decision.
Furthermore, he said, it was an order of the president of the District Court and thus it should be the president who decided whether to vacate it after hearing submissions.
Judge Anderson said he did not intend to catch Mr Moran "short" on the matter by dealing with it yesterday. He was not varying Judge Smithwick's order and if the DPP was making any application on the matter, it should put counsel for the defence on notice.
Regarding the book of evidence, counsel for the DPP said it involved the forensic examination of a computer and quite a lot of technical material. It was decided at a meeting of Garda technical experts last week that to be "really satisfied" with the book, it would be necessary to have the computer technician in court.
Judge Anderson said he thought this a good reason to grant an adjournment. However, he said, if the DPP did not have its book available at the next hearing then counsel for the defence would be able to argue for a striking-out of the case on grounds of an excess time-lapse.
The book is now to be served at the Dublin District Court on September 15th.