JUSTICE PAUL CARNEY AND NORA WALL

Justice Carney behaved like a judicial thug at the sentencing of Nora Wall on 24 July 1999. He KNEW that Nora Wall's accuser Regina Walsh had stated in a newspaper interview the previous month that she had also been raped by "a black man in Leicester Square". He KNEW that Walsh's "witness" Patricia Phelan had made a rape allegation against a man and that a High Court judge had thrown it out of court. He KNEW that Phelan had made allegations against her father, her brother and her uncle and that Walsh had been in a mental hospital around the time she first accused Nora Wall. Finally he knew that this information had been with-held from the Defence.

Justice Carney stated that he had no option but to give effect to the jury's verdict. That is correct. But was he obliged to describe Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe as gang rapists and Nora Wall as a gang leader? Was he obliged to impose a sentence of life imprisonment on Nora Wall? (This was the first time in the history of the State that such a sentence was imposed for rape.)

Was Justice Carney forced to refuse leave to appeal? Was he forced to deny a defence request that the sentence be dated from the end of the following week (in order to give the defence time to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal)?

I will make a suggestion that may clarify all of the above issues. An Anti-Semitic Judge presiding over the rigged trial of a Jew would have treated the Jewish defendant as Justice Paul Carney treated Nora Wall. Is there any other explanation for his conduct?

I do understand that Justice Carney has changed his approach in recent years (e.g. the "Recovered Memory" article I sent to you recently). However an apology is in order for what he did to Nora Wall - not just a quiet change of direction!

Rory Connor
6 June 2007]


Ex-nun gets life for rape
Irish Independent, 24 July 1999 by Rita O'Reilly

FORMER nun Nora Wall has been jailed for life for raping a 10-year-old girl at St Michael's Child Care Centre in Cappoquin, Co Waterford over a decade ago.

Her co-accused, Paul McCabe, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the same offence, the rape of the now 21-year-old victim, Regina Walsh, at the child care centre where Nora Wall worked as administrator.

Leave to appeal was refused by Mr Justice Paul Carney despite defence submissions alleging non-disclosure of evidence. Lawyers for Ms Wall and Mr McCabe are now set to go to the Court of Criminal Appeal next week to make applications there.

Responding to defence submissions and to letters he said had been sent to him, Mr Justice Paul Carney said he had no jurisdiction other than to give effect to the jury's verdict in the case.

Sentencing Wall and McCabe, he said that in the context of the facts of the case, he did not find anything in favour of either of them.

``This was a gang rape,'' he said. ``The leader of the gang was the only person in the world who was charged with the protection of Regina Walsh. I don't think I need to say more than that.''

He sentenced Nora Wall to life imprisonment and Paul McCabe to 12 years. On an indecent assault charge, he sentenced Wall to five years imprisonment, to run concurrent with the life sentence.

In his view he had no jurisdiction to grant a defence application for a stay of proceedings. The defence had ``access into perpetuity'' to the appeal court in relation to newly discovered facts, he said.

He also declined a defence request for the sentence to be dated from the end of next week.

Hugh Harnett SC, for Ms Wall, made the request in light of next week's sitting of the Court of Criminal Appeal, so that his client ``might not suffer imprisonment, unduly or unfairly''.

The hearing was not held in camera. Mr Justice Carney said Ms Walsh and Ms Phelan had forfeited their anonymity through newspaper interviews published since the trial.

The jail sentences and refusal of leave to appeal followed lengthy submissions by Wall's defence that there had been a failure by the prosecution to disclose potentially significant evidence. Even if this was not deliberate, new evidence that had come to light was sufficient ground for appeal.

Mr Hartnett SC said there may have been a failure on the prosecution side that led to ``a miscarriage of justice in this case''.

INTERVIEW
He said the defence had ``stumbled'' on the potential evidence through an interview by journalist Barry O'Kelly with the victim, Ms Regina Walsh, and a key prosecution witness, Ms Patricia Phelan.

The interview was published in The Star newspaper on June 17 last, after a jury convicted Wall and McCabe of the rape on June 10.

The jury found the former Sister Dominic, Nora Wall (51), with an address at Clonliffe Avenue, Drumcondra, and Paul ``Pablo'' McCabe (50), of Rock Road, Booterstown, guilty of the rape of Regina Walsh, a native of Waterford, on a date unknown between 1987 and 1988.

Wall, also a native of Co Waterford, who was a Sisters of Mercy nun, was also found guilty by the jury of indecently assaulting the girl at the home. The jury reached its guilty verdicts by a 10-2 majority after almost five hours deliberations.

Both accused had been acquitted on a second charge of raping the girl on a date in Janaury 1990. They denied all the charges during the six-day trial.

Yesterday, Mr Hartnett said that in the course of the newspaper interview of June 17, Ms Walsh alleged she was raped by another man in Leicester Square, London. Also subsequent to the trial, one of Mr Wall's brothers was approached by another man who said he had been the victim of a false allegation of sexual assault brought by the corroborative witness, Patricia Phelan.

Mr Hartnett said that matter had been dealt with in the High Court, and the judge dealing with it had remarked that though the witnesses' credibility was not an issue in the proceedings, ``he was less than impressed by their evidence''.

`DEFINITE FAILURE'
Mr Hartnett said it seemed extraordinary that the gardai in Kilkenny and Waterford did not know of the cases with a common link that took place around the same time in neighbouring counties.

He said the victim impact report ``even more worryingly'' referred to counselling Ms Walsh had received and to periods she had spent in St Declan's Mental Hospital in Waterford in 1996.

Either Ms Walsh was not telling the truth about these matters or there had been ``a very definite failure'' of disclosure by the prosecution, he said.

The court also heard that Ms Phelan had made separate allegations of sexual assault against her father, her brother and her uncle and that in the course of the victim impact report, Ms Walsh alleged that a former boyfriend had beaten and abused her when she was in England.

The defence counsel sought an adjournment so that further inquiries could be made in correspondence with the State, which he criticised for its delay in responding to queries. It might well be that the fresh information turned out to be ``a red herring'', Mr Hartnett said, but it indicated an ``abuse of process''.

At worst there had been ``a substantial potential miscarriage of justice'', he said, and at best ``an innocent failure'' on the part of the prosecution.

On behalf of the DPP, Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC said he was ``strenuously opposed'' to the application and he did not accept that there had not been full disclosure in the case.

The DPP was not aware of any allegation regarding a rape in England, Mr Buckley said, and he was instructed that the prosecuting gardai were never aware of any judicial proceedings regarding Patricia Phelan. But even if they were and if they did disclose them to the defence, those proceedings were ``not relevant'' to the case at hand, Mr Buckley said.

He told the judge that even if there had been a failure of disclosure, it was not a matter for the judge, but for the DPP.

Mr Buckley said that Ms Walsh did not wish to address the court. Mr Justice Carney said she had, however, submitted a poem, `Stolen Childhood' which he asked Superintendent Michael Blake to read to the court.

The judge also heard that Paul McCabe had 35 previous convictions in Ireland and England in the period from 1967 to 1997, for assault, criminal damage, indecent assault, indecent exposure, larceny, malicious damage and assault on gardai.

He was placed in care in Artane Boy's industrial school until the age of 16 and had spent six months in the Irish army. He had a history of alcohol and substance abuse and had received treatment at St Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman.