The legality of an undercover "sting" by the Garda on one of its own officers, who has been convicted of having solicited sex with a 12-year-old girl in a Limerick brothel, is to be challenged in the Supreme Court.
Sgt Gerard Lynch, a former presenter on RTE's Crimeline programme, is attempting in the Circuit Court to overturn a conviction and a nine-month prison sentence for the offence.
Judge John Buckley has heard how Garda Anne Marie McMahon posed in blond wig and plain clothes as a brothel-keeper for the purpose of supplying for sex a fictitious 12-year-old girl, Tanya.
She said she had been contacted by a man identifying himself only as "David" but who she now knew to be Sgt Lynch.
Judge Buckley saw a video of a conversation between Garda McMahon and Sgt Lynch in a bedroom in a brothel known as Erotica, Elm Street, Limerick.
It showed Lynch sitting on a bed talking to her about the supply of the 12-year-old for sex with him.
The video showed Supt John Kerins later entering the bedroom and arresting Lynch, who has denied the offence.
He claims that he had been involved in what was a "naive" solo investigation into the provision of children for sexual exploitation.
Mr John Peart SC, for Lynch, told the court that before Lynch gave evidence he was challenging the legality of the alleged offence on the grounds of impossibility of performance.
He said that since no such 12year-old girl as the fictitious Tanya existed other than as a figment of the imagination it would have been impossible for his client to have committed the crime with which he had been charged.
Judge Buckley said both defence and prosecuting lawyers had indicated that one way or the other his decision would be challenged in the Supreme Court and he reserved judgment on the legal question raised.