SENTENCING IN the case of a 52-year-old farmer convicted of multiple counts of animal cruelty has been adjourned pending the outcome of a judicial review.
John Burke, Duncummin House, Emly, Co Tipperary, was due to be sentenced yesterday at Bruff District Court on 22 counts relating to the mistreatment of animals on lands he leased at Baggotstown, Bruff, Co Limerick on separate dates between July and November 2005.
Yesterday, the court heard that Burke had lodged a review of the case with the High Court and that the High Court had issued an order that the proceedings be stayed pending the outcome of the judicial review.
Judge Mary O'Halloran informed the court that she has ordered a complete transcript of the evidence in the case to be lodged with the High Court.
The 52-year-old was convicted following a trial last June after his case was adjourned 18 previous times.
The charges, which Burke denied, concern some 1,200 sheep and 200 cattle and include allegations of allowing carcasses to go unburied, cruelty to animals including starvation and failing to inspect animals in his stock.
During the trial, Joe Carroll, a veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture, told the court some of the animals on Burke's farm had suffered a "horrific death".
During one visit to the farm on July 15th, 2005, Mr Carroll said he found four dead sheep caught in briars in a dyke.
He said the animals had died from heat and exhaustion and described their death as horrific and in "the upper limit" of animal cruelty.
"I don't think you could find worse than that," he told the court.
Another witness, Garda Aoife Moran, gave evidence of visiting the farm on July 12th, 2005, when she found nine unburied dead sheep, six of which were skeletal, three of which were infested with maggots.
During the trial Judge O'Halloran threatened to handcuff Burke who kept interrupting his solicitor John Devane during the proceedings. She refused a request by Mr Devane who asked to be removed from the case after his client asked to represent himself.
The judge said she was anxious that Burke had legal representation and that the case, which had previously been adjourned 18 times, proceeded.
She said the defendant had already had several different solicitors and she wasn't granting him any more solicitors on the legal aid panel.
Judge O'Halloran convicted Burke on all 22 counts and ordered that he not be allowed to hold or manage livestock again.