Judge criticises DPP as trial is delayed
A Central Criminal Court judge has criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for delaying the progress of a trial by failing to anticipate an issue that arose with a witness in the case.
Mr Justice Barry White told the jury in the trial of a man accused of sexually abusing and neglecting his son that “I am restraining myself from using unparliamentarily language that would render the air blue” as he sent the jurors home for the day due to a delay in receiving documents from the DPP.
Mr Justice White said the DPP should have considered the matter “way, way, way before this point.”
He sent the jury of seven men and five women home after lunch on day four of the trial and asked them to return tomorrow morning.
The 52-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of anal rape; 12 charges of oral rape; 24 charges of sexual assault and one charge of the wilful neglect or ill-treatment of the boy on dates between April 11, 2001 and June 23, 2004.
The offences are alleged to have occurred while the child was aged between 12 and 15 years old.
Earlier the owner of a pub where the accused is alleged to have stopped on the way to bring his son to hospital with fractured wrists told Mr Delia Flynn SC (with Ms Aileen Donnelly SC), prosecuting, that he served food on Sundays only and occasionally at events like funerals.
He agreed that customers sometimes came in for a particular purpose or discussed their business with him but he did not recall anyone in particular.
The man did not agree initially with defence counsel, Mr David Goldberg SC, that if someone wanted a sandwich there would be someone to make it but later agreed that there might be people in a position to make sandwiches at certain times.
The family doctor told Ms Flynn that the complainant presented to him with fractured wrists in 2001 after a fall in school and he was aware of a prescription for painkillers issued by a hospital casualty department being filled.
He said there was subsequent notes of him attending an outpatients department and being treated with a cast.
He said the boy also attended in 2003 for repeated headaches and for behavioural issues.
The doctor agreed with Mr Goldberg that the boy’s parents did not allow complaints to develop into something more serious and presented him at the surgery with issues of concern.
He said he received a report after the family had moved to another practice indicating that the hospital investigating the boy’s behavioural issues had not come to a diagnosis of a physical nature.
He said the boy did not present to him with fractured wrists but went straight to an accident and emergency department.
He said he had no indication that there was any sexual abuse taking place within the family.
The trial continues before Mr Justice White and a jury.
