A round-up of today's other court stories in brief
Extradition proceedings adjourned
The High Court has adjourned a British application for the extradition of an alleged fugitive sex offender who lived in a Co Kildare town for the past seven years.
Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday agreed to adjourn for two weeks the proceedings against John Murrell (39), Athy, Co Kildare. He remains in custody.
The court was told that the adjournment, which was on consent of both sides, was to allow lawyers to study the charges against Mr Murrell as set out in the extradition warrant.
He was arrested late last month and remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison. A previous sitting of the High Court heard he was opposing the extradition application.
Murrell went missing after failing to register with the British authorities following his early release from prison in September 2000. His case was later featured on the BBC programme Crimewatch.
Bike fall garda gets €35,600
A garda who injured himself when he fell over the handlebars of a bicycle, has been awarded €35,600 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.
Sasha Gayer, counsel for Garda Keith Horgan, told Judge Terence O'Sullivan that the accident occurred during a bicycle handling course at the Garda Depot, Phoenix Park, Dublin, in May 2001.
Garda Horgan, Melrose Park, Kinsealy, Co Dublin, told the court he had been participating in a mountain bike course during which a team of gardaí had undergone various aspects of safe cycling, bicycle maintenance and rules of the road.
He told Ms Gayer that part of the course involved learning how to fall properly off a bike in the event of an inevitable accident.
On the last day of the course he had just negotiated an obstacle course which involved him getting out of the saddle in a standing position and exiting the obstacle course at speed.
It was at this stage that the chain of his bike had snapped suddenly and he had been thrown over the handlebars, falling on his right side and shoulder, he said.
Garda Horgan suffered a broken right wrist and bruises and abrasions. Judge O'Sullivan dismissed a claim against BMX Ltd, Sundrive Road, Dublin, and awarded Garda Horgan €35,000 damages against the Minister for Finance together with costs and €600 special damages.