THE SUPREME Court has awarded Dublin man Brian Rattigan the substantial costs of his unsuccessful legal move to stop his trial for the murder of another man on grounds including prosecutorial delay and “lurid” pretrial media publicity. A date has yet to be set for his murder trial.
Giving the main judgment, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan expressed surprise that the DPP, given his interest in the fair administration of justice in a criminal trial, had not taken any contempt of court proceedings but left Mr Rattigan to do so himself. The DPP should be more proactive in the area of contempt of court proceedings where adverse publicity is involved, he said.
Yesterday, when awarding costs estimated at some €500,000 to Mr Rattigan against the DPP, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, said the case raised serious issues concerning maintenance of the integrity of the criminal trial process.
The five-judge court had decided, given the “exceptional circumstances” of the case, to depart from the normal rule that costs go to the winning party and would instead award all costs to Mr Rattigan of the procedings in the High Court and Supreme Court, he said.
The unusual and exceptional circumstances included unexplained and exceptional delay in the DPP’s office in progressing the case and “manifestly prejudicial” pretrial media publicity repeated even after legal challenges were mounted to such publicity and after certain media organisations gave undertakings to desist from such publicity.
Earlier this month, the five-judge court rejected the appeal by Mr Rattigan, now aged 27, of Cooley Road, Drimnagh, against the High Court’s refusal to stop his trial on a charge of murdering Declan Gavin (20), of Mourne Road, Drimnagh, on August 25th, 2001.
While refusing to halt the trial, the court expressed strong criticism of cumulative delays of some 34 months in the DPP’s office in progressing the case and also criticised prejudicial pretrial publicity, including publicity in the Sunday World, Sunday Tribune and Irish Daily Mail after Mr Rattigan had brought legal proceedings about such publicity.
