TV3 is to apologise to the Central Criminal Court for showing pictures of the home of a man jailed for 15 years for raping his daughter 24 times and torturing her and her mother.
Mr Justice Quirke had ordered the Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, The Irish Times and TV3 to explain why they published information which appeared to be a flagrant breach of the order not to publish anything which might identify the victims.
Last week Mr Justice Finnegan jailed the 38-year-old man and made an order preserving the family's anonymity.
Mr Justice Quirke said the newspapers and TV3 might face "very serious consequences" unless they could explain why they published certain information about the family this week.
He said that from the evidence he had heard on Thursday, material published in the Evening Herald on July 10th and 12th, and by the Irish Independent, The Irish Times and TV3 on July 11th, appeared to comprise a prima facie breach of the order.
Mr Hugh Mohan SC, for TV3, said the station would be apologising to the court for identifying the family's former home. He said that, in hindsight, TV3 should not have shown it.
Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for The Irish Times, said his client would be fighting any move by the Director of Public Prosecutions to cite the newspaper for contempt.
He said The Irish Times had published information about a home where the man's daughter had stayed after she left her family home. But it was his understanding that she was no longer living there when the article was published and he submitted that a contempt of court did not arise. Mr Nesbitt said The Irish Times was not being "aggressive" with the court and would never wish to add to what was a very serious human tragedy.
His clients, however, believed they had acted properly in publishing the article.
Mr Justice Quirke said responsible journalism performed a very valuable service for the community, but journalism which exploited the victims of sexual crimes for other reasons and often just for financial gain could not be tolerated.
He had heard evidence from the man's wife, from a social worker and from Sgt Joseph Martin, a very experienced garda, about the effect the media publicity this week had had on the victims and other members of the family.
Mr Felix McEnroy SC (with Mr Eoin McCullough), for the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald, said his clients gave "an unqualified and immediate undertaking" that they would not publish any information which might identify the victims in the case. He said he was not in a position to indicate whether the two newspapers had published information that might identify the victims.
As criminal proceedings might be brought he did not want to reply to contempt allegations until he had studied the case.
Mr Justice Quirke said the Evening Herald had published a photograph of the house, and publishing "thinly-disguised photos of the family" was also not acceptable.
Mr McEnroy said he wanted to assure the court that his clients considered the issue "an extraordinarily serious matter", and no more of this material would be published in the future.
Mr Mohan said the DPP should set down the relief sought on affidavit and notify all the parties. He also said that the name of TV3's director of news, Mr Andrew Hanlon, should be substituted on the motion for the director of programming.
Mr Bruce Antoniotti SC, for the DPP, said he would serve a motion on all the parties listing the information they sought. Mr Justice Quirke said the matter would be dealt with on July 28th.