Murdered girl's family say Minister was stand-offish about the case, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
If a member of an Irish family was murdered and the perpetrator fled to England or Wales, the trial could end up taking place in that jurisdiction.
The Irish family would have to cover its expenses for attending the trial, hoping that our Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal would provide some comfort afterwards. The State would provide no legal observer or adviser and there would be no contact from any official source other than An Garda Síochána and some kind-hearted diplomats.
That is the outlook for all Irish citizens, according to the Eager family, whose 28-year-old daughter Georgina was murdered in Dublin two years ago by her employer, Christopher Newman (62), who then escaped to London where he was arrested.
Earlier this week, Newman was convicted at Inner London Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kevin Eager, an uncle of Georgina's, travelled to London last January for a hearing on the defendant's fitness to stand trial.
That lasted two days and he was "shocked" that no representative of the Irish State at any level attended. But having experienced the attitude of the Irish authorities since then, with the exception of An Garda, the Irish Embassy and local Labour TD Liz McManus, he says he is no longer surprised.
Mr Eager is highly critical of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, whom he accuses of taking a stand-offish attitude to the proceedings: "If the murder of an Irish girl in Dublin is none of his business, if he wouldn't send a legal representative to the trial in the UK, well, I am saying that he has no business being Minister for Justice."
Despite the denial from the UK Crown Prosecution Service that it never asked the Irish authorities to seek Newman's extradition, he is "100 per cent" adamant this was the case and has called on the Minister to release the relevant papers.
Meanwhile, yesterday was the first day back in Ireland for George Eager, Georgina's father, since the trial started five weeks ago. "Even though there has been a good outcome, there's still a huge vacuum left. The void is more noticeable now than when Georgina died," he said.
With the conclusion of the trial the family has to come to terms with the fact that "Georgina is gone forever". While it was on, "even though it was very sad", it was still nice to be talking about her. "There was a lovely gentle atmosphere when Georgina was around." In a sense, the trial brought her back to life.
Georgina Christine Eager was the eldest of the four daughters of George and Sylvia. The family lived in Dublin city when she was born and moved later to Co Wicklow. "From the day she was born I loved her because I wheeled her around the South Circular Road in her pram, probably one of the first men around pushing a pram, but I didn't care." The family didn't expect the trial to last so long or to go so smoothly. "We were always afraid of some kind of hold-up." The main worry was the defendant and his unpredictable character. "Every day that he turned up in the dock was a bonus for us." There was a worry he might get sick or go "haywire".
George Eager is in the landscape gardening business as a supplier of topsoil, which has had to be held over for the past weeks.
Although the British legal authorities covered the costs of the family for the first week, because they were giving evidence, the rest had to be borne by the family. Hotel accommodation alone cost £1,650 (about €2,447) a week for four weeks, not including meals, laundry, clothes for the trip and other expenses.
"I used the credit card," says George. "It will amount to around €25,000." One of his daughters had to give up her job to attend the London trial. "We had no support," says George. "We were doing it for Georgina. We were there for Georgina to make sure we heard the story.
"Not one person from the State knocked on our door or even gave us a phone call to see would we be okay going to London - to this day.
"We feel as Irish citizens - and Georgina being a daughter of Ireland as well as our daughter - she was totally ignored by the State."
But they did it for their daughter and if the positions were reversed, she would have done the same: "Georgina was the type of girl that, if something had happened to any of us, she would be the first on the steps of the court."