The Minster for Justice Michael McDowell today defended the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to seek the extradition of a British alternative therapist jailed for murdering his Irish girlfriend in Dublin.
The Co Wicklow family of Georgina Eager (28) claimed they had to endure the cost and stress of a three-week trial in London without any support from the Government.
But Mr McDowell today insisted that the independent DPP in Ireland had acted properly in the matter and that a extradition process could have needlessly delayed the prosecution.
Christopher Newman (63), was jailed for life for stabbing Ms Eager 29 times in their Walkinstown flat after she told him their affair was over.
Earlier Ms Eager's father, George, his wife Sylvia, and their three remaining daughters criticised the Irish Government for not sending a legal observer to the trial and expressed confusion as to why it was necessary to try Newman - Indian-born but a British subject - in Britain rather than Ireland.
But Mr McDowell said today: "It's not my function to speculate on the independent decision-making process of the DPP ... but I'm confident it was based on sound legal grounds." But he said that anybody studying the details may assume that the jurisdiction in which Newman admitted to the crimes should also be where the case was tried.
He added: "If there was extradition, there would have been immense legal delays which would have been in nobody's interests. "What we had was a speedy and effective trial that brought the perpetrator to justice."
Extending his sympathy to the Ms Eager's family today, Mr McDowell admitted: "They had to go through a trial process which must have brought back appalling memories and visions to their minds."
But he said the Department of Justice had done everything it could to co-operate with the legal process. "Two police forces have co-operated to bring to justice the perpetrator of a particularly brutal murder, and they have done it in accordance of the laws of this country and the UK."
"I don't believe there has been any failure on the part of the Irish State to deal with the matter appropriately." He said the family would be fully compensated for expenses incurred in travelling to the London trial.
He said the Government did not normally send legal advisers to observe trials abroad and it would not have served any purpose in this instance. The Eager family's local TD, Liz McManus Ms McManus, said they found themselves in another country unsupported completely by their own state and dependent on the British authorities for a crime that happened in Dublin.
"The British actually invited the Irish authorities to seek extradition because the crime was committed here and all the evidence was here and the bulk of witnesses were Irish."
The Department of Justice said the decision to hold the trial in Britain was taken for technical and legal issues by the two prosecution services so that the best possible case could be put forward.