AFTER two Cork men failed to turn up for their trials in Dublin Judge Michael Moriarty said it was "ludicrous" that a total of 28 witnesses had been brought on a wasted journey to court at public expense.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard that in one of the cases a 31 year old man had been released on bail pending trial on a charge of possessing 2,500 ecstasy tablets valued at about £40,000.
The man had been ordered to report daily to the Bridewell Garda station in Cork but had not signed on there since February 16th last.
If a similar situation arose again, Judge Moriarty said, the Garda should make an immediate application to the court rather than have a large number of witnesses brought to court.
He issued bench warrants for the arrest of both accused men and assured members of the jury panel that the question of the men's future bail would be reassessed.
These two cases were just part of a vast number of provincial trials which had been transferred to Dublin due to the "weakly worded legal provisions of the law", said the judge.
An increasing number of accused persons have exercised their legal entitlement to transfer their cases.
Judge Moriarty said this legal provision had recently been altered and cases could now be transferred to Dublin only if a judge considered there was a risk of justice not manifesting itself in the local Circuit Court.