JUSTICE PAUL CARNEY AND NORA WALL - THE REASON WHY

[The following is a very interesting article on Justice Paul Carney; it was written by Barrister Kieron Wood. It is remarkable as much for what Mr. Wood leaves out as for what he says. He stresses that Paul Carney's career was marked by controversy from the beginning and gives several instances. Yet there is no mention of Justice Carney's treatment of Nora Wall - probably the greatest travesty of justice in the history of the Irish State. The Nora Wall case in June/July 1999 was

the FIRST time a woman was convicted of rape
the FIRST time any person got a life sentence for rape
the ONLY conviction on "Recovered Memory" evidence in the history of the State.

Nevertheless Mr Woods article does make some interesting points. Judge Carney accused the Rape Crisis Centre (RCC) of using victim impact statements to campaign for a heavy sentence and described this as a "serious abuse of process". He dismissed the claim of the Director of the RCC that there is no such thing as a false sexual charge.He said that some alleged rape victims might be pressured into continuing with claims they were reluctant to pursue and that such pressure might come from "...prosecutors, rape crisis centres and victim support counsellors".

These are fighting words. The question is WHEN did Justice Carney come to hold these views? If he held them at the time of Nora Wall's trial, why did he behave so viciously then? The obvious answer is that he is hates the Catholic Church in the same way an anti-Semite hates Jews and behaved accordingly towards a former Sister of Mercy (see "Justice Paul Carney and Nora Wall" on www.alliancesupport.org on 7 June 2007).

A more charitable explanation is that Justice Carney was shocked by the outcome of the trial and changed his views about rape allegations AS A RESULT of the fiasco. However he has never stated this and Kieron Wood's long article fails to mention Nora Wall.

The overturning of Nora Wall's conviction did not bring our child abuse witch-hunt to an end. In fact the witch-hunt scaled new heights of lunacy afterwards with allegations of murder and mass murder against the Christian Brothers. (Most of these accusations relate to times when no boy died of any cause so I coined the terms "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murder" allegations to describe them).

If Paul Carney experienced some kind of moral epiphany after Nora Wall's acquittal then he should say so. A silent act of contrition is not enough - NOT after what he has done and NOT while the Witch-Hunt continues to devastate our society.

Rory Connor
12 June 2007]

Judge With One Eye On The Media
Sunday Business Post, 13 April, 2003 by Kieron Wood

Name: PAUL CARNEY
Age: 59
Appearance: Stout, grumpy, cryptic

NEWSWORTHINESS: He has accused the Rape Crisis Centre of using victim impact reports to"campaign" for rape victims.Mr Justice Paul Carney's clash with the Rape Crisis Centre last weekend wasn't the first time he'd hit the headlines. As the senior judge of the Central Criminal Court, he is constantly in the public eye, and not always for the right reasons.

Carney was appointed to the High Court bench 12 years ago, after an out of-the-ordinary upbringing and a career not unmarked by controversy.

As a child, he had lived in Sweden, where his parents - Professor James Carney of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and Maura Morrissey, a Royal Irish Academician - established a department of Celtic studies at Uppsala University. Returning to Ireland at the age of nine, he was educated by the Jesuits at Gonzaga College. Today he lives in Rathmines with his wife Marjorie, a barrister and former consultant dermatologist. They have three sons and a daughter.

Carney was called to the Bar in 1966 and took silk in 1980. He practised largely in the area of criminal law and found himself in the media spotlight in 1987 when, as prosecutor in a rape trial in Cavan, he absented himself during the hearing to handle another case.The accused was subsequently cleared of rape. A Bar Council inquiry cleared Carney of any wrongdoing.

His time on the bench was marked by controversy from the beginning, when he was involved in an after-hours incident at Dublin's Shelbourne hotel. It followed a particularly stressful period during which he had come under sustained criticism for his relatively light sentence in the Kilkenny incest case.

One senior counsel who has known Carney for many years said: "As a barrister, he presented cases very well but he was extraordinarily tense and wound-up. As a judge, he remained rather tense for a number of years; I think he wasn't too sure of himself.

"There is a residue of that, although his confidence has grown with the years. Sometimes nowadays he does make a joke, though you wouldn't describe him as urbane on the bench. But I've noticed that, in recent years, he's far more relaxed on social occasions.

"He has a clear, incisive mind and is very hard-working - and that has stood him in good stead. He doesn't have much time for people who haven't done their work. If he is in doubt about any legal point, he relies to a degree on the help he gets from counsel, but if he is not satisfied, he will bone up the point himself."

A former election agent for the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, Carney became a judge under the FF/ PD coalition in the early 1990s. He has retained an interest in politics, but is careful to observe the limits dictated by the constitutional separation of powers.
Last September he told a meeting on the prosecution of EU fraud: "Under our constitutional scheme I am precluded as a member of the judicial branch of government from entering into public discussion of matters of policy or controversy."

That hasn't stopped Carney from criticising the Oireachtas over such issues as the dearth of judges, the shortcomings of the legal system and loopholes in the law. He is not afraid to take an unusual stand where he feels it is justified - on legal or personal matters. In December 1999 he refused to remain in the Four Courts after the heating failed in his chambers. In a letter to the chief executive of the Courts Service, Carney said the radiators in his chambers had never worked "and, despite repeated representations on my behalf, the situation has never been rectified".

He said he had suffered "the most debilitating colds and illnesses on account of the Arctic conditions prevailing in my chambers . . . I am going home and shall remain there until the heating is restored to my chambers, whenever that may be - if ever."

Last December (the heating presumably having been fixed), Carney called for a single court to try all criminal charges. At present, the Central Criminal Court deals almost exclusively with rape and murder cases.The judge complained that, as a High Court judge, he was not allowed to try a billion-euro fraud, "not because it is above my jurisdiction, but because it is beneath it".

"In my view, we must take a very close look at the [English] Crown Court model in which a Criminal Court would be staffed by judges of all ranks, with each case finding its level within that system according to its particular facts and importance, and not simply according to the description of the charge," he said.

But the government has shown no enthusiasm for such a radical reordering of the court system. Indeed, it has shown little enthusiasm for providing sufficient judges for the existing system.

Last May Carney complained about the "serious inadequacy" in the number of judges which resulted in delays of up to two years in the hearing of rape and murder trials.

Carney said he was "substantially the only full-time High Court judge dealing with criminal trials" and the situation would not change until more judges had been appointed. He said the "pain and suffering" of victims and relatives in cases adjourned for such long periods was "beyond comprehension".

The following month Carney described the situation as "chronic and out of control". He admitted to a seminar on victim support that his speaking out might be no more than a symbolic gesture, as his powers to take practical steps were limited, "yet symbolism is better than indifference".

Following Carney's broadsides, the government appointed a number of new judges, including experienced criminal silk Barry White. Last week, for the first time in living memory, there were six judges trying rapes and murders in the Central Criminal Court.

A Courts Service spokesman said trial delays had been halved since last October, and someone accused of rape or murder could now expect to face trial within 13 months of indictment. The spokesman said that figure should eventually drop to ten weeks.

Carney has backed calls for the media to be allowed to report in camera cases in the family law courts - but expelled reporters from his court during incest cases, forcing a change in the law. He has praised the "constitutional role" of court reporters, but refused to allow them to oppose spur-of-the-moment applications to have them barred from hearings. He has invited reporters to his chambers, but has hauled other reporters before him for contempt.
Unlike most of his colleagues, Carney backs the televising of court cases.

He told a seminar at Trinity College law school three years ago: "There is a very strong case to be made that citizens should be entitled to monitor and observe the fair administration of justice in their home through the contemporary technology of television."

He also called for an end to the in camera rule in family law cases, adding that the media had reported rape cases responsibly, and could be trusted to do the same in family law matters.

But he is not always so complimentary about journalists. He has frequently expressed concern about "trial by media" and about newspapers stirring up "feelings of hostility or hysteria" against defendants.

During one murder trial, a tabloid newspaper described the accused as a "brute". Carney said that a convicted person still had a constitutional right to his good name and he threatened to take action against what he called misreporting.

In 1996, Carney pre-emptively threatened to use "the full rigour of the laws governing contempt of court" against any journalist who misrepresented his three-year sentence of a Waterford man for rape. Carney said the sentence could lawfully be trenchantly criticised, but it could not be misrepresented.

In one recent rape case, he pronounced: "The sub-editors who write the headlines for the reports of these cases like to describe every case with a sexual dimension emerging from this court as one of rape.

"This is not a case of rape,which has certain technical ingredients which are not present here. Accordingly, to describe this as a case of rape would be a misdescription."

One court reporter who has covered Carney's court for many years said: "He always has one eye on the media, and, if he spots a reporter whom he doesn't recognise, he will often get his tipstaff to ask them who they are.

"He has a reputation for being grumpy, but I think it's more that he finds it difficult to relate to people socially. Basically, he is a shy person - though he loves publicity and always seems to be trying to stir things up. He enjoys being controversial and likes to provoke the Oireachtas into thinking about the law.

"He's a very good judge who tends to take a back seat during trials and not to intervene unnecessarily. In reality, he's the administrator of the Central Criminal Court, which would grind to a halt without him."

Because Carney handles such a large percentage of the state's rape trials, it is only to be expected that he comes into conflict with women's groups from time to time (though, ironically, he has the only female tipstaff in the Four Courts).

In 1999, Carney told a seminar in South Africa that some alleged victims of rape might be pressured into continuing with complaints they were reluctant to pursue.
[NOTE: Did he say this BEFORE or AFTER the Nora Wall trial in June/July 1999? RC]

"Such pressure could come from parents, boyfriends, policemen, prosecutors, rape crisis centres and victim support counsellors," he said. "I have no way of knowing whether such pressure exists, but I would be very concerned if it does, particularly in relation to those cases which can be profiled as unlikely to result in a conviction."

The following year, Carney criticised the DPP for appealing a number of rape sentences. "The Director of Public Prosecutions is very trigger-happy about appealing my alleged undue leniency in sentencing," he told counsel. "I would rather you say anything about it to my face, rather than behind my back in another place."

But his sentences are not always lenient. Last October the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed remarks by Carney when sentencing a Sligo builder to six years in jail for raping his wife. Breda Allen, chairwoman of the RCC, said it was a "very good day" for Irish women "when we see that all the evidence was taken seriously and the remarks the judge made . . .The length of the sentence shows the seriousness with which the judge recognised the crime."

Last weekend, at a Women Lawyers' Association conference, Carney dismissed the claim of the director of the Rape Crisis Centre (RCC) that there was no such thing as a false sexual charge. "This is not the experience of the courts," he said. "In relation to the balance of rape cases which are contested, there is a majority of acquittals."

The judge also criticised an RCC counsellor for suggesting in a victim impact statement that the severity of sentence imposed on a rapist would determine the degree to which the victim became "reconciled with the justice system". Carney said it was a "serious abuse of process" for the author of a victim impact report to use it to campaign for a heavy sentence.

The former director of the Rape Crisis Centre, Olive Braiden, clashed with Carney at the conference. "He launched into a criticism of a senior counsel who was not present, and I said I regretted that he had raised the matter in her absence," she said.

It was not the first time the two had crossed swords. During the state's first marital rape trial, Carney ordered all those who were unconnected with the case to leave the court. Braiden, who was counselling the alleged victim, remained, and the trial was subsequently aborted.

But Braiden said that in general she found Carney very supportive of women. "He's very concerned about the way a prosecutrix would be treated in a rape trial, and he gives everyone an opportunity to speak before sentencing," she said.

As well as what he describes as his "day job", Carney takes an interest in the people he has sentenced. He attends the Theatre Project performance in Mountjoy Prison every year and recently presented certificates to prisoners who had completed a law course.
"His interest in justice extends well beyond the courtroom," said barrister Vincent Martin,who is director of Public Access to Law. "He's genuinely passionate about demystifying the law."

Kieron Wood is a barrister and author of The Kilkenny Incest Case (Poolbeg)