An Irish priest has won a High Court challenge to a bid to have him extradited to Arizona, where he is accused of three incidents of sexual abuse with an altar boy, then aged 10, which allegedly occurred in late 1978.
One of the grounds for refusing the extradition application was the nature of the bail regime in Maricopa County, Arizona, which Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan found would infringe Fr Patrick Colleary's constitutional rights.
The judge referred to prisoners being forced to wear pink underwear in public and to "chillingly sadistic" comments from a Sheriff Arpaio, who operates the prison where Fr Colleary could be detained for some two to three years before any trial.
Fr Colleary served in the diocese of Phoenix until March 2002 and shortly afterwards was placed on administrative leave. In June 2003, a warrant was issued for his arrest by Arizona's Maricopa County attorney general's office and extradition proceedings began.
Giving his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said the first time the complainant made known the allegations to any law enforcement agent in Arizona was on December 12th, 2002. The complainant was then aged 34 and his complaint followed a television programme from which he learned that similar allegations against Fr Colleary made by another complainant were dismissed because of the statute of limitations.
The judge refused the extradition application on two grounds. The first was that the delay in reporting the alleged offences, and the specific prejudice to the priest's defence as a result, meant there was a real risk to Fr Colleary's right to a fair trial. The second related to the bail regime in Arizona which, the judge concluded, would amount under Irish law to an infringement of the priest's constitutional right to liberty.
Following yesterday's judgment, Co Sligo-born Fr Colleary said: "I am happy it's over. It should never have happened in the first place."
Mr Justice O'Sullivan said it had come to the notice of counsel for the Attorney General that a newspaper article on the morning of April 22nd had depicted a gang of inmates of Maricopa County Jail being paraded publicly wearing nothing but pink underwear and linked together with pink handcuffs, all under the supervision of Sheriff Arpaio.
Sheriff Arpaio was reported stating he insisted on prisoners wearing pink underwear "because they don't like it".
Having referred to other reported statements of the sheriff, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said there was a chillingly sadistic tone to the comments and it was the duty of any Irish court, he believed, to ensure there could be no possible risk of an extraditee finding himself in a regime governed by Sheriff Arpaio.