AN application to have a ban lifted on day to day reporting of a case involving the seizure of cocaine worth £47 million in Cork Harbour last September was refused yesterday. The judge in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court ruled that the interests of the accused came before those of the media.
On Tuesday last, the case opened before Judge A.J. Murphy, when one of the five accused, Gordon Richards (52), of North Hill Cottage, South Mill Lane, Brighton, pleaded guilty to charges of possessing cocaine with intent to supply and with unlawfully importing the drug.
Richards's case has been set aside and will not be dealt with until the present hearing, involving the four co accused, has been completed.
They are Mr Howard Charles Miller (37), Old Fisherbeck, The Old Lane Road, Ambleside, Cumbria; Mr James Noel (51), Hospital Road, Castries, St Lucia, West Indies; Mr Roman Smollen (50), Rodway Bay Marina, St Lucia; and Ms Theresa Bernadette da Silva (19), of Terraza 3, Cuadra Lusa Sin, Puerto de la Cruz, Venezuela. The defendants are pleading not guilty.
At the outset of the trial, Judge Murphy ordered that the media could not mention Richards's case until other matters before the court had been finalised. But on Wednesday a complete ban on daily reporting was imposed.
Appealing the ban yesterday, Mr David Holland, barrister, for The Irish Times and the Irish Independent, said there was no basis in law for the order and that there was an implicit right under the Constitution for the media to report a public trial and for the public to be made aware of it. These rights, however, were subject to other rights, such as the right of the accused to a fair trial. He had come across no similar order and there appeared to be no statutory authority for it. Accordingly, he was applying for the order to be vacated.
Mr David J. Lucey, barrister for the Examiner, said he also could find no authority for the ban.
Mr Patrick Hogan, barrister for RTE, said that even though the Cork court might impose a ban on daily reporting, it could not control media outside the State.
Judge Murphy said the interests of the media were secondary to the interests of the accused, none of whom was an Irish citizen or close to home. "The bar on publicity is not to hold the trial in camera. The doors of the courts are open and the public has the right to come in," he said.
Last Tuesday, a report had come to his attention suggesting that a jury in the case was about to be sworn in.
This had led potential jurors to drop what they were doing and come to the courthouse. Also after the jury had been sworn in, the Cork evening paper contained a report of its efforts to have his order lifted when it was only made at 4.30 p.m. - after the paper was on the streets.