Judge Harvey Kenny of the Western Circuit Court issued a direct apology yesterday to a Nigerian woman over remarks he made in a case against her in his court last month.
At 4.00 p.m. yesterday the assistant registrar notified the press that Judge Kenny wished to make an apology and invited them to attend a special sitting of Castlebar Circuit Court at 5.30 p.m.
Judge Kenny, who had been sitting in Tuam Circuit Court earlier in the day, travelled specifically to Castlebar to apologise to Mrs Bukky Abebanjo, Knockaphunta, Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Mrs Abebanjo, who had been told by Judge Kenny at the previous sitting that she should have been "put in jail" to spread the word around the Nigerian community "that if you must drive, you must have insurance", attended in court with her three-year-old son.
Before the judge issued his apology, Mrs Abebanjo said she did not hold any ill-will towards him for what he said.
"I know I did the offence of driving without insurance. I didn't mean to do it. It is because of the area I live in. I have to drive my children to school. Maybe, because he had a case like mine in Galway the day before, he had enough of it.
"If he apologises, I will accept it. My solicitor rang me and asked could the judge apologise to me and I said: 'Yes, I would accept it'."
Asked did she expect the judge to remove the fines totalling €1,750 imposed for the offence, she said she would be very grateful if he did.
"I don't have the money to pay the fines. If the judge could maybe let me pay it on a weekly basis, I could do that. I am homeless now but I'm staying with a friend. I'm on social welfare."
She said she had not taken personal offence at what the judge said. She knew what was happening was new to Ireland and it was new to her too to be in court. "It's new to him too," she said, referring to Judge Kenny.
When he entered the court Judge Kenny addressed Mrs Abebanjo directly.
"When you were before me at the last court on the 14th January of this year, you were convicted and appealed against a conviction for no insurance. I made then what I now realise was an improper comment about Nigerians driving around without proper insurance and I made a remark you were lucky you were not going to jail.
"I wish now to withdraw those remarks and I want to apologise for making those remarks and I regret any hurt those remarks might have caused and I hope you can accept my apology."
Mrs Abebanjo replied: "Yes."
Judge Kenny thanked her for accepting his apology and thanked her for attending the court at such short notice. He then left the court room. The matter took less than five minutes.
The judge's apology was issued in writing by the Courts Service and sent to the national press in the form of a statement.