A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Mother on cruelty charges remanded
A 45-year-old woman who has been charged with cruelty and neglect of her children, has been remanded in continuing custody to December when a date will be set for her trial.
The woman, who may not be named for legal reasons, faces 18 charges which allege she assaulted, ill- treated, neglected, abandoned or otherwise treated her children in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to their health and wellbeing between May 2002 and June of last year.
Bernard Madden SC, defending, told Galway Circuit Criminal Court that the woman’s trial would take three weeks or longer.
Conor Fahy, prosecuting, said the trial could be listed for January.
Judge Raymond Groarke remanded the woman in continuing custody to December 3rd with a view to setting a date for trial in January.
Submissions heard in Callely action
The High Court has heard further legal submissions in Senator Ivor Callely's action aimed at overturning a Seanad committee's finding that he misrepresented his normal place of residence in order to claim expenses.
The submissions related to the decision by Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, president of the High Court, upholding Senator Pearse Doherty's challenge to the Government's 16-month delay in holding the Donegal South West byelection.
The court found that delay was "unreasonable"; the State has appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
Mr Justice Iarfhlaith Ó Neill had invited both sides in the Callely proceedings to make submissions arising from the Doherty judgment.
Michael O'Higgins SC, for Mr Callely, said he was not attaching his client's case to the "hip" of the Doherty judgment but, he argued, the ruling did support his argument that the courts could, in certain circumstances, scrutinise decisions made by the Oireachtas.
€50,000 award for 'Sunday Times' story
A High Court jury has awarded €50,000 damages to a man after finding that a newspaper article had associated him with criminal activity.
It had wrongly stated that a horse, part-owned by him, was owned by another man.
Des O'Neill (74) had brought his action over a
Sunday Timesarticle which reported that More Rainbows, a horse co-owned by him, had belonged to a person who made a multimillion settlement with both the UK's Assets Recovery Agency and the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Mr O'Neill, Batterstown, Co Meath, sued Times Newspapers Ltd, London, over the article published in the Sunday Times magazine on February 8th, 2008.
Rapist has half his sentence suspended
A Kildare man who pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping his two younger sisters more than 40 years ago has succeeded in having nearly half of his prison term suspended on appeal.
The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday suspended the last four years of a 10- year sentence which was handed down to the 63-year- old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court in October last year.
He was sentenced after pleading guilty to five sample charges of raping the elder sister and seven of raping the younger at their home between 1963 and 1969.