A Circuit Court judge, Mr Brian Curtin, charged with possessing child pornography, has been refused leave by the High Court to take proceedings aimed at securing unrestricted access, for the purposes of preparing his defence, to some 280 alleged pornographic images allegedly taken from his computer.
Mr Justice Kearns said the application on behalf of Judge Curtin (52), of Ard na Li, Tralee, should be made in the first instance by way of a preliminary application to the Circuit Court judge dealing with the case.
Judge Curtin's trial is expected to proceed next spring.
The images include some 85 allegedly downloaded from Judge Curtin's computer, and a further 187 allegedly restored by gardaí after being allegedly deleted from the computer.
Lawyers for Judge Curtin claimed the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) intends to rely on these images for the prosecution of Judge Curtin. They also claimed that they required access to the material on terms less restrictive than the DPP is permitting.
They claimed their expert only has access to the images on a restricted basis, being effectively "locked up" with them.
An offer from the DPP to be permitted to inspect copies of the images in a Garda station, under Garda supervision, was not adequate access, they said.
Mr James O'Reilly SC, for Judge Curtin, yesterday applied to Mr Justice Kearns for leave to seek orders, in judicial review proceedings, challenging what counsel described as the DPP's restrictive approach to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
Counsel said the Act provided that access could be afforded to such images to those engaged in prosecutions under the Act and also for research purposes. He argued that the Act must also be read as permitting access to the defence to such material for the purposes of preparing for a trial.
