A CENTRAL Criminal Court judge has expressed concern that a man charged with murder has been in custody for more than a year with no trial date fixed. Mr Justice Flood said: "Nobody should be in custody for 13 months. That is the beginning and end of that.
"I am concerned that here is a man who is charged with a very serious crime, a man who has the presumption of innocence and is entitled to a trial."
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, suggested the delay in fixing a trial date for Mr Anthony Broderick could be close to bringing the State towards a breach of European human rights law.
Mr Justice Flood made a personal approach to the President of the High Court yesterday to allocate another judge to the Central Criminal Court to hear the trial of Mr Broderick.
However, the judge afterwards said he had been told neither a judge nor court was available. He said the president was investigating the possibility of securing a trial date before Christmas. In the interim, the judge agreed to an application from Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting to fix a peremptory trial date for January 20th next year.
Mr Broderick (21), from Limerick, is charged with the murder of Mr James Doyle in the city on September 3rd last year. The case was listed for mention yesterday and Mr MacEntee raised the delay in bringing the matter to trial.
He said Mr Broderick had been in custody for 13 months and the matter had been on the court list on a number of occasions. A date was sought on each occasion but last July the State had sought an adjournment of the matter. Mr MacEntee said no trial date was fixed on that occasion because no judge was available. He said that when the list to fix dates was heard last July all sides wanted a trial date.
Mr MacEntee raised the issue of bail but Mr Vaughan Buckley said any bail application would be "strenuously opposed". He said it was not the prosecution's fault the trial had not proceeded.