HC Deb 02 August 1889 vol 339 cc171-2
MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he has yet seen the reports in the Cork and Kerry papers of the proceedings at Killarney Courthouse whilst a case was at hearing, during which Mr. Moriarty, the defendant's solicitor, was turned out of Court by Mr. Cecil Roche, Resident Magistrate; if he will state whether District Inspector Gray had any right to interpose a statement as to what a policeman told him, before the defendant's solicitor had finished with the witness; whether the latter was right in objecting to the Inspector doing so; was Mr. Roche, the Magistrate, right in preventing Mr. Moriarty from making this objection; and, in view of the circumstances of the case, will he order full inquiries to be made into the whole proceedings?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The newspapers do not, I understand, contain a full report of these proceedings. There were two solicitors for the defence—Mr. Colles and Mr. Moriarty. The witness was at the time of the incident not in the hands of either of these solicitors, but in the hands of the District Inspector who was prosecuting. The District Inspector was obliged to state his reasons for requesting that the witness's words should be taken down verbatim, and was proceeding to do so, when Mr. Moriarty interrupted him in a most violent manner, and continued to do so, although warned by the presiding Magistrate that the District Inspector was addressing the Court, and was perfectly in order. Mr. Moriarty defied the order of the Court, and was accordingly removed.

MR. FLYNN

Was not Mr. Moriarty within his legal right in objecting to the District Inspector interposing a statement during the examination of a witness?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

Mr. Moriarty may have been justified in making observations upon the action of the District Inspector, but what he was not justified in doing was, when the Court ruled that the Inspector was in order, in persisting in violently interrupting the proceedings.

MR. FLYNN

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman if Mr. Cecil Roche is a magistrate of "whose legal knowledge and experience the Lord Lieutenant is satisfied."

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

Yes, Sir; that is so.