Justice Kevin Haugh:MR JUSTICE Kevin Haugh, who died suddenly on Thursday last aged 64, had a long association with criminal law before being appointed to chair the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission in February 2006.
He was born into a legal family, his father Kevin serving as attorney general and later as a judge of the High and Supreme Court. He was the second of six children, one of whom died in childhood. Kevin Haugh senior died in 1969, but his widow, Brenda, lived on until 2003.
The younger Kevin Haugh attended Castleknock College in Co Dublin and studied law in University College Dublin before qualifying as a barrister at the King’s Inns. He was called to the Bar in 1966 and became a senior counsel in 1983. He was elected a bencher of the King’s Inns in 1994.
Although he had a general practice, he was mainly associated with criminal law, and acted in a number of high profile cases both as prosecuting and defence counsel.
However, the case that probably struck the loudest chord with the public was that of Brendan O’Donnell, who murdered Imelda Riney, her son Liam and local priest Fr Joseph Walsh in Co Clare. Kevin Haugh was the prosecuting counsel, and O’Donnell was convicted in 1996 after unsuccessfully seeking to plead insanity.
He was appointed a judge of the Circuit Court later that year, and to the Special Criminal Court in November 1996.
In March 1998, he was nominated to the Administrative Tribunal of the United Nations. The following year, in a vote by the General Assembly, he topped the poll by a huge margin. This led to two four-year terms based in New York and Geneva which he recently completed.
Among the trials he presided over as a Circuit Court judge was that of a Nigerian man who carried out a circumcision on a one-month old baby boy who later bled to death. Charging the jury, Judge Haugh told them it was important they did not bring their “white western values” to bear upon their deliberations and described the case as a “clash of two cultures”. The man was acquitted.
His most controversial case was that of Charles Haughey, who was charged with obstructing the McCracken tribunal. Mr Haughey’s counsel argued he could not receive a fair trial in the light of media publicity, including an interview with the then tánaiste, Mary Harney, where she said he should go to jail.
Judge Haugh devised a questionnaire for jurors to establish if they had been prejudiced by media coverage, but the High Court said this could not proceed. He then ruled that the case should be adjourned indefinitely. This was challenged by the DPP in the High Court, but this court upheld his decision.
In October 2005 he was nominated by the Cabinet for appointment to the High Court, in anticipation of his appointment as chairman of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. He indicated frequently he was happy as a Circuit Court judge, preferring its immediacy to the more protracted process of High Court hearings, often with reserved judgments, but he eagerly took up the challenge of setting up the commission and establishing an independent system of accountability for the Garda Síochána.
Last year he indicated to the Government he wished to return to the bench when his three-year term at the commission expired next month, and only last week received confirmation from the Government that he could do so.
He was looking forward to this eagerly, hoping to sit on the Central Criminal Court, where he could put to use his vast experience. Many of his colleagues expressed great regret that this would not now come to pass.
A leading criminal senior counsel said: “He was hugely respected both as a barrister and as a judge. He was a barrister’s barrister, and much loved. He was an extraordinarily clear thinker with a very analytical brain. He was the best man to charge a jury, without a book or a note.”
He was described by another long-time colleague as “a very, very good, honourable and humane prosecutor. He played it straight down the middle always. I never saw him put a foot over the bar of fairness. That’s not to say he didn’t do his job. He did. He was very, very good.”
Kevin Haugh loved travelling and had an apartment in Antibes, and also enjoyed his holiday home in Blackwater, Co Wexford. Jovial and immensely sociable, he joined in the available social circuits both at home and abroad.
A major interest was hot air ballooning, where he once participated in a summer feature series for The Irish Times, ballooning around Ireland with then Irish Times journalist Niall Kiely.
He is survived by his wife Annette, his children Sarah, Bob and Geraldine, and three grandchildren; and by his sisters Evelyn Quinn, Clodagh and Brenda Haugh and his brother Maurice.
Kevin Haugh: born June 1st, 1944; died January 29th, 2009