A judge has granted an application allowing the legal representatives of the Star newspaper to see the psychiatric report on a girl who was sexually assaulted in 1993 and 1994 when she was 10 years old.
Judge Kieran O'Connor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has put a stay on his order and refused permission to the Star to obtain its own independent psychiatrist to examine the girl. He said he regarded the Independent Star Group's application as "gross impertinence" and that it exceeded its right in a criminal prosecution.
Judge O'Connor initially banned the media last November from reporting the case in which a 57-year-old man received a three-year suspended sentence. He lifted the order the following day after barristers representing The Irish Times, Independent Newspapers, the Star and the Irish Examiner argued he had no jurisdiction to impose such a ban.
He maintained, however, that the man's name, his place of residence and his occupation were not to be published, though the victim and her family wanted his identity revealed.
At the latest hearing, Mr Eoin McCullough, for the Independent Star Group, said his clients wanted to examine the girl to assist in their appeal against the original order made by Judge O'Connor on the defendant's identity. There was no impertinence intended.
The judge put a stay of 14 days on releasing the medical report to the defence.