APPLICATIONS to prohibit trials involving sexual abuse should be processed quickly by the courts, Mr Justice O'Flaherty said in the Supreme Court yesterday. Delays in bringing prohibition proceedings only accentuated any delay in hearing a case.
The court dismissed an appeal by a Co Wicklow man against a High Court refusal to grant him an order prohibiting his trial on charges of sexual assault of a young girl.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty, giving the court's judgment, said such prohibition proceedings seemed to be taking on a life of their own. It was often regarded as par for the course that, if a sexual abuse charge was brought, the next stage was an application to the High Court to prohibit the trial.
"If that is the way things have to happen, so be it, but they should be processed in the High Court in the first instance with expedition. If anyone wants, to appeal, then the matter should be brought to the attention of the Chief Justice as soon as a notice of appeal is lodged and an early date sought for the disposal of it in the Supreme Court," said Mr Justice O'Flaherty.