An elderly Cork GP, charged with over 200 counts of sexually assaulting his female patients, has won a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights that his rights have been violated by the delay in prosecuting the case against him.
Dr James Barry, Glanmire, was first investigated by gardaí in June 1995, after a former patient alleged she was sexually assaulted by him and that he had made video recordings at his surgery in Sydney Place, Wellington Road.
Gardaí searched Dr Barry's surgery and videos containing material similar to that complained of by the woman were found. Following complaints from other women, Dr Barry was charged in October 1997 with 237 sexual offences.
However, the prosecution was delayed when Dr Barry brought judicial review proceedings in the High Court and later in the Supreme Court, both of which refused to grant him an order preventing his trial from going ahead.
The Supreme Court dismissed Dr Barry's application in December 2003, but he subsequently appealed to the European Court of Human Rights that the delay in the case had violated his rights, and last month the court ruled in his favour.
"The court observes that the allegations and subsequent charges of sexual assault on 43 former female patients are clearly grave," the European Court of Human Rights said towards the end of a judgment delivered on November 24th.
"The applicant, who is now in his 80s, has, therefore, had to bear the weight of such charges for the last 10 years as well as being concerned about, if convicted, a substantial prison sentence.
"Having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the court cannot consider the time taken in the case to have been reasonable. In sum, there has been a violation of article 6.1 of the convention."
The court noted that the proceedings had not yet ended and had lasted over 10 years and four months, though it noted that reasonableness of time must be assessed in the light of the complexity of the case.
The State had pointed out that the criminal investigation was sensitive and complex, involving 237 different charges arising from complaints made by 43 separate former patients of Dr Barry.
The court accepted that the complexity of the criminal investigation might explain the delay between the laying of the first complaint in May 1995 and the formal charging of Dr Barry in October 1997. "However, it cannot explain the subsequent delay of eight years in bringing those charges to trial."
The State pointed out that Dr Barry had taken two sets of judicial review proceedings and claimed much of the delay was caused by his "blunderbuss" attack on every aspect of his prosecution and "unfocused" approach to discovery of documents.