Judge Geoffrey Browne yesterday banned publication of the names of two former senior officials with the Blood Transfusion Service Board charged in connection with the infection of seven women with hepatitis C through a contaminated blood product.
The order was made in relation to the two, a man and a woman, who first appeared in court last July and were named at that time despite a request from the judge not to do so.
An application for a hearing into the lifting of the ban was made later yesterday by Independent Newspapers solicitor Tony Williams of McAleese and Co and this was adjourned to October 2 at Dún Laoghaire District Court to allow all parties to be informed. The ban remains in force until then.
Yesterday the two officials were before Dublin District Court to be sent forward for trial. Judge Browne asked the prosecution if the names ban could be an order of the court. "I did make an order on the last day that names not be published, but the press did not take any consideration of that request," he said.
Chief Prosecution Solicitor (CPS) Noreen Landers referred to relevant legislation which would allow him to make an order banning publication of the names.
Judge Browne then directed as part of the order of the return for trial that the names of the defendants not be published. He sent them both forward for trial to the next sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court on their own bail bonds of €250.
The charges against the former officials alleged they "unlawfully and maliciously" caused a noxious substance, namely infected anti-D, to be taken by the seven named women, thereby inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The infections, which were subject of the Finlay Tribunal of Inquiry in 1997, are alleged to have taken place between 1977 and 1992 at various hospitals in Limerick, Cork, Laois, Galway and Dublin. Four related to 1977, one to 1991 and two to 1992.