Green
Party Councillor Raymond Blaney compares the jailing
of Belfast Barrister with the failure of the DPP to
even contemplate investigating UTV Insight revelations
about its Deputy Director Glen Irwin.
The
Green Party Councillor said: "On Monday night
last UTV Insight reported that the Director of the
Department of Public Prosecutions sees no fault in
his Deputy Glen Irwin instructing a forensic scientist
last November to remove from his case file crucial
evidence of a miscarriage of justice against two South
Down men, Martin Brogan and Mark Carroll.
"Yet
three days later the Bar Council launches an immediate
investigation into Michael Kelly, a Belfast barrister
after he was held in a cell at Dungannon Courthouse
for allegedly making disparaging remarks about a judge.
"These
double standards completely undermine public confidence
in the judiciary and the criminal justice system.
"People
have a right to question which offence is more worthy
of investigation: two men victims of a politically
motivated prosecution designed to incarcerate them
for years or a Belfast Barrister allegedly speaking
out of turn to a judge?
"Why
is it that the personal feelings of judge Jeffrey
Foote QC should take precedence over the feelings
of two South Down men deprived of liberty for 14 months?
"People
are entitled to know if there is a different law for
judges and senior figures in the DPP?
The
Green Party would like to know if Jeffrey Foote QC,
or the Bar Council is in anyway perturbed by the revelations
in the UTV Insight programme: Above Suspicion?"
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