A round-up of today's other court stories in brief
O'Hare says he is entitled to be set free
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has been accused of obfuscating and sidetracking in his dealing with a second High Court bid by Dessie O'Hare for his immediate release.
O'Hare is serving a 40-year sentence for the kidnapping of dentist John O'Grady and claims he is entitled to be freed under the Belfast Agreement.
This second legal action was initiated by O'Hare early last April but opposition papers have still not been filed by the Minister for Justice and the State, the High Court heard yesterday.
The case was adjourned for three weeks to allow lawyers for the Minister to file a statement of opposition.
Porn offender warned by judge
A former civil servant who downloaded child pornographic images described as "amongst the worst that have ever come before the courts" will be jailed unless he begins attending psychotherapy at the Granada Institute
Gerard McMahon (53), a divorced father of six, North Brunswick Street, Dublin, was warned by Judge Yvonne Murphy at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that she would impose a custodial sentence unless he began psychotherapy at the institute as previously intimated.
Singer laughs off theft of horsebox
Singer and entertainer Brush Shiels laughed it off yesterday when a man appealed against a jail sentence for stealing a horsebox from his home on the Meath and Kildare border.
Brush said: "Nothing works on Maggie's Farm."
The horsebox, with flat tyres and a broken hitch, had been parked beside a wall on his farm. When he got it back it had been resprayed, the punctures had been repaired and a new hitch had been fitted.
The court heard that Edward Wall (34), Fortunestown Crescent, Tallaght, a father of six, had pleaded guilty in the District Court to having handled stolen property and had been sentenced to six months imprisonment.
In yesterday's appeal by Wall against severity of sentence, Det Garda Declan Claffey said he had 19 previous convictions. Just before the start of yesterday's appeal, Wall had handed him a receipt purportedly for the purchase of the horsebox.
"It was written on a page torn from a schoolbook and one of my colleagues saw him writing it before the case," he said.
Ann Ferris, solicitor for Wall, told the court her client and his wife had suffered a recent tragedy in which one of their children had died in a cot death.
Judge Doirbhile Flanagan said the stolen property had been recovered and, in the circumstances of the recent tragedy, she felt nothing would be gained in sending Wall to prison and suspended the sentence. She bound him over to keep the peace for 12 months.
Jury in rape trial discharged
The jury in the trial at the Central Criminal Court of a Kilkenny man charged with raping a woman and controlling a prostitute has been discharged and a new date is to be set for the hearing.
Mr Justice Barry White told the jury that he had to discharge it on the application of Isobel Kennedy SC, defending, who had just come into the case and needed time to take instructions.