'Squiggles' save journalist in 'forgery' trial
A journalist has walked free from Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after Judge Desmond Hogan directed the jury to find her not guilty of forging pharmaceutical prescriptions.
Ms Naomi McElroy (aged 27) of Grove Park Drive, Glasnevin, Dublin, a Sunday Mirror journalist, had pleaded not guilty to five charges of forging prescriptions and five of presenting them to north Dublin pharmacies on July 29, 2004.
Ms McElroy handed over the medication she obtained from pharmacies to gardaí and told them she did it as research for a newspaper article.
Judge Hogan directed the not guilty verdicts on all 10 charges following legal submission from her defence barrister, Mr Paul Burns SC (with Mr Luan Ó Braonáin BL).
Judge Hogan said he agreed with Mr Burns that the charges should be dropped as the prescription pads that Ms McElroy had signed with a "squiggle" did not carry any registered practitioner's name and she was therefore not purporting to be a registered practitioner.
Mr Burns had submitted that the law stated that it was not enough to simply write down the drugs on the prescription but there had to be something purporting to be the signature of a registered practitioner in order for the prescription to be considered a forgery.
He recalled that Ms McElroy told gardaí that she had signed each prescription with a "squiggle", but that it was not any particular signature. He said therefore she was not purporting to be any particular person and was not forging any person’s signature.
Judge Hogan refused Mr Burns application for legal costs for Ms McElroy on the gorunds that an accused person who was acquitted should be awarded their costs against the State.
Judge Hogan said that the case was brought about largely by Ms McElroy’s own actions and he "had no intention" of granting her costs.
