Irish government moves to impeach judge over child porn allegations

An Irish judge involved in a child pornography case is locked in a legal battle with the Dublin government, which is moving to impeach him for his behaviour.

An Irish judge involved in a child pornography case is locked in a legal battle with the Dublin government, which is moving to impeach him for his behaviour.

The impeachment of a judge has never happened before in the Irish state, and the procedures for doing so have never been tested or fully clarified.

Removing the judge, Brian Curtin, from his office will be a constitutional affair, involving votes against him in both houses of the Irish parliament, the Dail and the Senate.

Mr Curtin and the government are involved in a slowly evolving but tense standoff which is taking the state into uncharted legal and political waters. The authorities are moving against the judge with great caution to deny him the chance of launching successful legal appeals against their actions.

Mr Curtin, a circuit judge from Kerry, walked free from court in Tralee last month after the judge hearing his case ruled that a police search warrant was a day out of date. The prosecution had alleged that images of persons aged under 17 years had been found on the judge's laptop computer. But after days of legal argument the jury was directed to acquit Mr Curtin and the case collapsed.

However, the fact that he had been acquitted on a technicality created a strong sense, in political and public circles, that Mr Curtin should be speedily removed from office. At that point everyone hoped he would resign. The government wrote to him formally asking him to "explain and address the apparent circumstances of access to, and downloading from, a website of child pornography".

Mr Curtin took some time to reply, asking for a two-week extension before he did so. In his response he made no mention of retirement, asserting that it would not be constitutionally appropriate for him to answer questions from the government. This, he said, was because the government was clearly contemplating his removal from office. He offered no explanation for his alleged downloading of child pornography.

Mr Curtin is said to be concerned about money, reportedly arguing that removing him from the bench would rob him of his earning power. He is apparently contending that he would be due several million euros as a pay-off. However, the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has declared that there will be "no sweetheart deals".

The 52-year-old judge's image has not been helped by revelations that he had a teenage girlfriend after the break-up of his marriage, or by the fact that he was recently arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.