Posts Tagged ‘ Gardai ’

The Fourth Estate?

When I first thought of becoming a journalist, I had huge ambitions to right wrongs, uncover shady dealings, bring politicians to order, show up the plight of the needy, be the champion of the underdog etc.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out exactly as I expected. While there are moments of exhilaration and a true feeling of satisfaction, these are few are far between. The real role of a journalist as I have found it is to inform people of exactly what is going on in the world around them.

This may not be earth-shattering political corruption or a shocking murder – thought it on occasion is – but mostly is related to the poor state of a local road or a lack of resources for the children of a local school.

The press are sometimes referenced as the fourth estate (historically behind the clergy, royalty and the common man). We are seen as an independent watchdog of sorts who are there to catch people who are trying to get one over on the system.

As part of our job reporting on what goes on in society, the criminal justice system is obviously an important part of that. What greater mirror to view the current state of our world than a district court room on any given day?

The assortment of people who traipse through the doors of a district court and the offences they commit give those in attendance a very clear idea of how our society works and interacts.

From the supposedly-wealthy businessman who is before the courts for failing to pay his rates, to the career criminal/drug addict who knows the Judge by their first name – the whole spectrum of society can be seen.

It is therefore imperative that justice be seen to be done in public. And here is where the press come in. We are there to report what goes on in the court. From speeding fines to 15-year sentences for rape – we have a duty to report it accurately and fairly.

This however didn’t seem to cross the minds of the Courts Service of Ireland when constructing the superb new facility in the Civic Square on The Avenue in Gorey. The new Gorey District Court is a state of the art facility with plush chambers for the Judge, solicitors, and the gardaí.

The courtroom itself is modern and large enough to accommodate the size of crowds coming through its door every Thursday.

However there is no Press Bench. We don’t want anything fancy – just a chair and a desk on which to write and in a position where we can hear exactly what is going on so we can report it properly.

What we got was an afterthought. A piece of wood hammered onto the back of one of the benches in the body of the court where two of us have to jostle with everyone else for some space and strain our necks to make out what is being said.

The results of this will mean we won’t be able to hear what is going on and therefore not report it. Or even worse, we will miss hear some evidence and report it inaccurately.

This is not fair on the press and it is certainly not fair on the person whose testimony is misquoted in the papers.

The need for transparency in this country has never been greater and anything that block a viable press is worrying. I am sure there were no nefarious motives behind the lack of a proper press bench but a lack of foresight and consultation has led to this situation.

The public deserve to know what is going on in their society and their local press is where they go to find this out – therefore we need to be a priority and not just an afterthought.

2010
09/07
CATEGORY
The Gorey Details
Wexford
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The Hunt for Murphy

Convcited rapist Larry Murphy

They seek him here. They seek him there. And for a brief 24hour period last weekend, the residents of north Wexford thought they saw him everywhere.

The whereabouts of Larry Murphy was the only topic of conversation anywhere in Gorey, Courtown, Castletown, Kilmuckridge and everywhere else in north Wexford last weekend. It was also one of the main topics of conversation in the ether of the internet with tweets and comments speculating that Murphy was living in this house or visiting this beach or drinking in this pub.

In reality Murphy was nowhere near north Wexford and was certainly not drinking in a pub in Courtown or driving a Fiesta around Gorey as had been claimed. The people who organised the protest outside a house in Riverchapel had taken these rumours and ran with them.

They used people’s (in particular women’s) natural fear to stoke the fire and generate what amounted to hysteria at one point in the small sea-side village of Courtown.

The reason they did it was out of fear and their desire to make sure the authorities (whoever they are) knew the people of Riverchapel and Courtown didn’t want Murphy in their midst.

The problem of course was that all this was done based on conjecture and rumour. Who knows who started the rumours on the internet – or why they did it?

Was it someone’s misjudged attempt at a joke which was picked up as gospel? Was it a malicious attempt to discredit the people living in the house in Riverchapel? We will probably never know.

The bigger issue emerging from this debacle is that the 60 to 70 people who gathered outside a house in Beachside on Friday morning felt they had no option but to take things into their own hands.

However misjudged the organisers were in their efforts, it still highlights a huge discrepancy in the justice system. While Minister Ahern has now said tagging of “ordinary criminals” will begin next month, it is a bit late for Murphy.

We seem to be too worried in this country about impinging on convicted criminals human rights while displaying a complete lack of regard for the safety and welfare of our law-abiding citizens.

Can you imagine how the young woman who was vicious and repeatedly raped by Murphy in February 2000 now feels? I can’t but I imagine she is not feeling too safe knowing her attacker is free.

I take into account that Murphy served every day of his sentence. It is not his fault that the Irish justice systems deems it an automatic right to give prisoners remission of 25percent of their sentence – even if they don’t engage in any counselling or treatment while inside.

I also realise that at the moment gardaí have Murphy under surveillance and know where he is at all times. That will not last however and eventually people will forget about Murphy and someone else will replace him as the focus of their hatred.

This is why I can understand where the people in north Wexford are coming from when 1,200 of them sign a petition calling for Murphy and his ilk not to be housed in the area.

While the protest outside the house in Beachside was not the right thing to do and caused widespread panic the reasons behind it where perfectly understandable.

People will never feel safe with criminals like Murphy being freed without supervision. The problem is there are hundreds of convicted rapists, paedophiles and murders living in Ireland at the moment without any way of knowing where they live or who they are.

The system needs to change and quickly before we see another situation like that in Courtown last weekend.

2010
08/27
CATEGORY
The Gorey Details
Wexford
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Need to curb drunken acts

As the town prepares for a weekend of festivities the gardaí, residents and business people in the town will be on the lookout for the other side of such a large group of people socialising in Gorey over the weekend.

In recent months gardaí have become very aware of a large spike in the anti-social behavior of people in and around Gorey especially – though not exclusively – at the weekends. From minor offences such as drunk and disorderly and urinating in public to the more serious matters like using threatening and abusive behavior and even assault, gardaí in Gorey have been stretched to the limit when dealing with this increase in offences.

It seems as if the lengthening days sparked off something inside people and following a relatively quiet few months in the town, June saw a huge increase in serious offences.

On June 19 up to 200 people gathered on Pearse Street after tumbling out of various night clubs and pubs around the area and held a stand-off in the middle of the street which saw rocks and glass bottles being hurled in either direction.

Such was the scale of the riot that the gardaí in Gorey had to call for back up from their colleagues in Enniscorthy.

Surely this was a one off and would not happen again. Unfortunately a week later, while not on the same scale, the town was once again the scene of numerous offences caused by alcohol fuelled revelers.

The results left one young woman with a scar on her face and neck following an assault by another young woman with a glass bottle. It saw two men fighting each other in the middle of a quiet housing estate – on a Monday night.

The weeks since have seen the trend continue with numerous arrests each weekend around the town, particularly in the Pearse Street area of the town.

In the past week three shop windows have been broken late at night by people so drunk they can’t stand up properly.

The outcome of all this will be the clogging up of the court system for months to come where the offenders will slowly come before the Judge where their solicitors will claim it was completely out of character for their clients and look for probation reports to be prepared thereby further clogging up the system.

The solution to the sudden upsurge in drunken offences in Gorey will not be easy. There is no money available for extra garda resources and they are stretched to breaking point as it is.

There needs to be some responsibility placed on those serving alcohol to the people who are then churned out onto the street at 2.30am and left to their own devices.

While most pub and club owners are responsible in relation to the serving of alcohol there are some who look to put profit before the safety of their customers and continue to serve drink to people obviously already very drunk.

While the gardaí and bar staff can help lessen the problem, the real issue is with the offenders themselves who are predominantly young men – though increasingly young women are now also being prosecuted for the same offences.

Trying to change the mindset of people who go out with the sole intention of getting as drunk as possible is the real challenge we face today and Gorey is no different from most other areas in the country in this regard.

As the Market House Craft and Design Festival approaches, let’s hope that people are willing to come out and support the festival and businesses around the town rather than causing trouble which will inevitably lead to Gorey getting a name for such behavior and risk turning visitors coming to the area.

2010
07/27
CATEGORY
The Gorey Details
Wexford
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Justice lost among sea of buggies and jargon

At last week’s sitting of Gorey District Court, it seemed as if the court service were trying to break the world record for the most people in a courtroom at one time.

As it was the first criminal court sitting in four weeks, it would have been expected that a larger than normal crowd would be in the courtroom at 10.30am on Thursday morning, however it seems as if every case that is currently before the court in Gorey was listed for hearing on this day.

For some it was a family day out with kids, buggies and Nintendo DSs all out in force. For others it was the sobering shock of their first experience of a court room. Every strata of society were packed into the crumbling courtroom on Charlotte Row awaiting the arrival of the Judge who would dispense wisdom and hand out justice from on high – county councillors, former TDs, TV stars, doctors, thieves, drug users were all well represented.

However the reality of a District Court such as this is: less complex legal argument; more cattle market. It is a matter of sheer volume. The court list had over 220 separate cases listed for last Thursday. Over 380 separate charges were to be dealt with in some way – and these are before the last minute bench warrants, fresh charge sheets and search warrants are added.

There were more than ten separate contested cases due to be heard in full – with witnesses, gardaí and defendants all in court ready to argue their side. Only one of these was heard and only because the defendant was in custody.

Despite only hearing one contested case, the Judge, court clerk, gardaí, reporters and defendants didn’t finally leave the court until past 7pm that evening.

As the court clerk diligently began calling out one list after another, the Judge could be heard to utter with incredulity: “There’s another list?” on several occasions. He made several public comments as to the length of the list and asked how anyone was to get anything done with such a list.

While the Judge, gardaí and solicitors were aware (for the most part) of what was going on during the sitting, the public were left to stew in their own juices while legal argument and jargon flew at the top of the room. It was chaos.

There was no justice handed out last week – only cases shoved from one date to the next with everyone looking to gain an advantage. The Judge tried his best to make some progress in each case that was called before him but it was like fighting a rising tide.

Every time he seemed to be making progress another spanner would be thrown in the works and the whole thing would collapse and have to be heard again on another date.

For some people coming back to court will be another day out but for other it will mean an extended period of uncertainly and pain.

The District Court can be a superb mirror to the current state of the nation – a sharp increase in robberies shows people are getting desperate; a growth in the number of people driving without insurance shows people are willing to take a risk due to lack of money and an overcrowded courtroom shows either an inefficient system or an alarming spurt in the crime rate.

It seems as if certain Judges are happy to continuously adjourn cases with some appearing on the list last Thursday for the 11th or 12th time. This clogs up the court system and cases are not heard in a timely manner and as a result a solicitor will claim undue delay in bringing the case to trial and the whole case will be thrown out.

No doubt this overcrowding is not an isolated occurrence and while it would be nice to think people would learn their lesson and not reoffend, I have a feeling we will be looking to break the world record in Gorey’s new courthouse in the near future.

2010
04/18
CATEGORY
The Gorey Details
Wexford
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