Judge Carroll Moran warned last January that society was in danger of descending into a state of anarchy after a case in which Mr Liam Keane was the key witness collapsed in Limerick.
Nine months later 19-year-old Mr Keane is again at the centre of a dramatic collapsed criminal trial - albeit this time as the accused not the victim.
Judge Moran made his comments in Limerick Circuit Court last January after Mr Keane said he could no longer identify the person who stabbed him.
He was giving evidence in a case against Kieran Ryan (19), Hogan Avenue, Kileely, Limerick who was charged with stabbing Keane in Limerick in March 2002.
Mr Kieran Ryan is a son of Eddie Ryan who was gunned down in a Limerick bar by Mr Liam Keane's uncle, the murdered crime boss - Kieran Keane - in November 2000.
The court heard at that time that Mr Liam Keane had identified Mr Kieran Ryan in a statement to gardaí as the person who stabbed him, but was unable to do so in court.
Judge Moran said he was left with "no alternative" but to direct the jury to find the accused not guilty and the case collapsed. "It is a very sorry state of affairs that this should happen, and if this is going to persist, we are going to live in a state of social chaos and anarchy," he said.
The judge's comments proved prophetic as nine months later Mr Liam Keane is again a central figure in a collapsed trial.
In an ironic twist of events, six witnesses at the Central Criminal Court this week denied making statements to gardaí which identified Mr Liam Keane as the killer of 19-year-old Mr Eric Leamy.
Yesterday many people in the Island Field area where Eric Leamy was killed felt angry at the recent turn of events, but nobody was willing to speak publicly.