In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief...

A round-up of today's other stories in brief...

TB infected woman applies for release

A South African woman who has been detained in a Cork hospital for 11 months after refusing to accept treatment for a suspected drug resistant strain of TB has applied to the High Court for her release.

The hearing began yesterday before Mr Justice John Edwards.

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The woman arrived here in 2001 and became ill towards the end of 2006. She was initially treated as an inpatient and then as an outpatient by the hospital. She has consistently refused treatment and the hospital has been unable to perform a specific test to determine what form of TB she is suspected to be suffering from.

The case before Mr Justice John Edwards continues

Credit union loan defaulters' action

Four people facing jail over their failure to meet credit union loan instalments have brought High Court proceedings arguing that the manner in which their cases were dealt with breaches the State's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The four, all from Co Monaghan, are said to be in financial difficulty with just one of them employed.

They are challenging orders made by Judge Seán McBride at Monaghan District Court jailing them for one month each over failure to meet loan instalments.

It is claimed the District Court orders requiring them to pay the sums, or be jailed in default, unlawfully deprive them of their liberty merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation and amount to conviction of a criminal offence.

Tenancies board action challenged

A landlord has brought a High Court challenge to overturn a decision by the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

The challenged decision, issued on October 7th last, relates to a dispute between landlord David Pratt and two of his tenants and requires Mr Pratt to pay 17,535 to them

Mr Pratt claims the board was not entitled to reconsider the matter having previously made a decision to similar effect in September at a time when two serving local authority members, Cllr Dessie Larkin (Fianna Fáil) and Cllr Vincent Martin (Green Party) sat on the board. Elected representatives are not permitted to sit on the board.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Michael Peart granted Cormac Ó Dúlacháin SC, for Mr Pratt, leave to bring judicial review proceedings.

Family trio give life for murder

Three brothers with an Irish family background have been jailed for life in Britain after the court heard that they had murdered the wrong man in a revenge attack.

John Fitzgerald (27) and Declan Fitzgerald (22) who were living in Brixton, London will serve a minimum of 15 years and their half-brother Alan Ellis (18) also of Brixton, will serve a minimum of 14 years for murdering father-of-six Julien Warrington (44) in an apparent case of mistaken identity.