A charge of drink-driving against Circuit Court Judge Brian Curtin is expected to come before the District Court in Tralee today. The judge faces an allegation of driving with excess alcohol on May 8th last at Clonalour, Tralee, based on a urine sample.
The judge who is at the centre of an Oireachtas inquiry into allegations that he appeared to have downloaded child pornography on to his home computer was recently said to be unfit to appear before the committee on health grounds.
Lawyers told the Oireachtas committee it would be at least three months before he was fit to appear, and they produced psychiatric evidence to that effect. The committee has asked for Judge Curtin's doctors to appear before it with medical reports at its next meeting on September 14th.
Earlier this year Judge Curtin was acquitted of a charge of possessing child pornography in the Circuit Court in Tralee on a technicality and before the case went into evidence. Judge Carroll Moran directed a jury to bring in the acquittal on the grounds that the judge's computer was seized unconstitutionally in May, 2002, because the search warrant executed by the Garda was out of date. The judge had denied the charge.
Judge Curtin checked into St John of God psychiatric hospital in Dublin after being arrested on suspicion of drink-driving in early May. He checked out in mid-August it is understood, and has since been abroad.
He was seen returning unaccompanied to Kerry on Monday afternoon on a Ryanair London-Stansted flight and was driven from the airport.