High Court proceedings are to be started against a woman who has failed to attend an inquest into the death of her husband on 12 occasions, despite being summoned repeatedly.
Gerard Lee (31), of Seabury Park, Malahide, was shot dead during a birthday party for him in Coolock, Dublin, on March 9th, 1996.
When the inquest into his death was reconvened at Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday, Ms Linda Lee again failed to appear. She was called a number of times during the morning.
A jury had been sworn in to hear the inquest and other witnesses and members of Mr Lee's family were present, in accordance with legal advice from the Attorney General to the coroner.
Garda James Murphy of Mala hide station said he served a witness summons on Ms Lee at her home at Seabury Park on October 8th. He also read a letter to her from the Coroner's Office and handed it to her. The letter advised her that High Court proceedings might follow if she failed to attend. Her only comment when he handed her the letter was: "Is this for me too?"
Mr Brian McMahon of the Chief State Solicitor's Office, who appeared for the Attorney General, said a letter had been sent to Ms Lee on September 10th both by registered post and by pre-paid ordinary post. The letter pointed out that the Attorney General intended to issue High Court proceedings to compel her to attend the inquest.
The inquest heard that no response had been received to the letters by the Coroner's Office or the Attorney General's Office. The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said the court found itself in an unprecedented situation, as a material witness had failed to attend despite repeated requests.
He said the legal advice he had received was to reconvene the inquest to give Ms Lee a final opportunity to appear - and she had been warned of the consequences of her failure to do so.
A letter from the Lee family to the coroner indicated that they were very frustrated by the delay in hearing the inquest. Their counsel also made this point.
Dr Farrell said he would write to the Attorney General asking him to issue High Court proceedings as soon as possible to ensure that Ms Lee would attend the inquest. "We are setting a precedent and hopefully it will prevent this type of thing happening again," he said.
He apologised to the Lee family for the further delay and adjourned the inquest for mention on December 2nd.