A District Court judge has said journalists were “wrongly excluded” from his court in Waterford last month in a case which has opened a rift between the Garda and Courts Service.
Judge Brian O’Shea was addressing Dungarvan District Court on Wednesday during an application by journalists for the Digital Audio Recording of the October 13th sitting of a case involving Kieran Hartley. Mr Hartley appeared before him on that date charged with allegedly committing a public behaviour offence against a family member of a local garda.
The court was to hear a challenge from Mr Hartley on that occasion as to the authenticity of the Garda statements gathered for the case.
However two journalists were barred from entering the court for the case for more three hours by An Garda Síochána, with reporters told gardaí had been “directed by the court to not allow anyone into it” and that they “honestly” did not “know any details” as to why.
The Courts Service has insisted that no such order was provided and the judge reiterated this stance at the court sitting on Wednesday, saying “people were wrongly excluded from the court on the day” of the case last month.
‘No hesitation’
The judge told reporters Eoghan Dalton and Christy Parker that he had “no hesitation” granting their application,
“It’s appropriate that you should have access so that you and the public know what happened,” he said. He added that due to ongoing public health restrictions, “the press has a function which is more important” as members of the public are sometimes prevented from accessing courtrooms due to limits on numbers indoors.
While statements issued through the Garda Press Office have maintained that the gardaí were acting under the direction of the judge on October 13th, the justice spokespeople for Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, along with the National Union of Journalists, have called for an explanation from Garda management on how it came to its conclusions to exclude reporters.