Two men charged with damaging tombs and disturbing corpses failed to appear at Listowel District Court yesterday.
The men, Mr Alan McNulty (28), Sandyford, Co Dublin, and Mr Matthew O'Donnell (23), Aughills, Castlemaine, Co Kerry, are charged with damaging three tombs dating from 1918 to 2002 at Raheala graveyard, Ballyduff, Co Kerry, on the night of August 4th, 2003.
They are also charged with unlawfully disinterring, disturbing or otherwise interfering with the remains of two people, one of whom, Bridie Fitzmaurice, had been buried only eight months previously.
The remains of Jack Browne, interred in 1998, had also been disturbed.
Judge Leo Malone at a previous court hearing in February had remanded Mr McNulty on continuing bail and he ordered him back into court yesterday.
He issued a bench warrant for Mr O'Donnell when he failed to show up at that hearing last month.
Judge Malone declined jurisdiction, saying he did not consider the charges minor and fit to be tried in a District Court and he ordered the book of evidence to be served.
Supt Frank O'Brien told the court yesterday that Mr McNulty was now in custody in Loughan House on a separate matter.
The bench warrant for Mr McNulty's co-accused, Mr O'Donnell, still stood as it had not been executed, Supt O'Brien said.
Judge Mary O'Halloran granted an adjournment for the serving of the book of evidence and also a warrant for the production of Mr McNulty from custody before the court on April 27th when the book of evidence is to be served.
Mr McNulty is pleading guilty to charges of criminal damage to the tombs and has accepted what he is accused of "on the face" of the other charges.
However, there were legal questions with the charges of unlawful disturbance, disinterring and/or interference with the remains, his solicitor, Mr Pat Enright, stated at the February hearing.
The last time a charge of its kind had come before the courts was in London in 1880, and there had been no reference to any such case since in the legal text books, Mr Enright said.
The previous court hearing heard graphic details of the interference.
The lids of the two coffins were prised open and removed. The shrouds were pulled back and the remains exposed, the court was told.
There was a conscious act to interfere with the remains of deceased persons, and gardaí believed the pair were searching for valuables, it was stated.
The 1880 London case (Regina v Jacobson) involved a builder carrying out excavation work in part of a disused graveyard in Tottenham Court Road.