Limerick has a higher proportion of murders coming before the Central Criminal Court than all other counties except Dublin, a leading High Court judge said yesterday as he jailed Michael Sage.
Mr Justice Carney expressed the hope that the court would soon be able to deal with Limerick killings on a current basis, within 10 weeks of indictment.
At present, the Central Criminal Court has a 16-month waiting list for murder and rape trials.
He said a new crop of High Court judges due to sit in October, coupled with procedural changes in the 1999 Criminal Justice Act, should make it possible to deal with these killings within 10 weeks.
His comments came as he sentenced Sage to 10 years for the killing of John Carroll.
"This is the third case I have tried this year from this area of the country in which a gang beat to death a person under a disability for a trifling sum of money or none at all," Mr Justice Carney said."The wholly disproportionate number of killings coming before this court is totally out of line with every other county in the country except Dublin."
He said the trials of Sage, Roche and Sage's wife, Ms Deirdre Rose, had occupied lengthy court time. This resulted in "great difficulties" in getting rape cases to trial.
He described the Carroll killing as a "gang killing of a person under a disability", but said Sage was not "some drug-crazed dysfunctional person on the streets".