Derek Reid (35), who repeatedly attacked, degraded and sexually assaulted his then partner and later held in her home against her will - in an ordeal she described as being 'like a nightmare on repeat' - has been jailed for five and a half years. Reid slapped the woman in the face, choked her, head-butted her, dragged her around her flat by the hair and sat on her chest and put his hands on her mouth to stop her screaming out for help.

A high-risk sex offender who raped a woman with a mild intellectual disability three times has had his jail term increased, with the Court of Appeal finding that the discount he received for being a non-English speaker in an Irish prison was "excessive".

courtsnewsireland.ie Returning judgement today, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the court also found it surprising that the trial judge had placed "little emphasis" on the fact that Costel Pirvu (39) has a previous conviction for attempted rape.

The High Court has ordered the extradition to France of a forger and weapons trafficker who fled to Ireland over 20 years ago after being convicted of Islamic terrorism offences.

courtsnewsireland.ie The High Court previously heard that father-of-four Youcef Madani, who was in receipt of medical disability here for partial blindness, was an "expert in false paperwork" who "specialised" in fake passports. I

Enoch Burke has claimed that justice is being "withheld" from him after a judge refused to grant an injunction halting disciplinary proceedings against him because the teacher said he will not comply with a previous court order to stay away from the school he is employed at. On Wednesday morning Mr Burke informed the court that he would not be complying with the orders granted last September, which he said were flawed and in breach of his constitutional rights.

A High Court judge has said he will not grant Enoch Burke an injunction halting disciplinary proceedings against him unless the teacher agrees to comply with a previous court order to stay away from the school he is employed at. In his judgement returned today, Mr Justice Conor Dignam said that the teacher had raised strong grounds that would allow the court to make orders preventing Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath from proceeding with a disciplinary meeting due to take place this Thursday.

A violent offender who grabbed and raped a woman with a mild intellectual disability and then falsely imprisoned her in his home, raping her twice more, was given an extraordinarily lenient sentence because he can't speak English, the State has argued at the Court of Appeal today Costel Pirvu (39) formerly of Kilreekill, Loughrea, Co Galway, was found guilty of three counts of rape and one of false imprisonment after a nine-day trial at the Central Criminal Court last year.

He had pleaded not guilty on all counts and was jailed for six and a half years.

Alan Yip (47), who falsely registered himself as the father of six babies in order to facilitate their mothers in securing Irish passports for their children, has been jailed for three years.

courtsnewsireland.ie However, Judge Martin Nolan today imposed suspended sentences on the parents who decided to participate in the scheme.

Former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall has entered the Witness Protection Program after giving a statement to gardai that implicates others in the murder of David Byrne, who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel in 2016 as part of the Hutch/Kinahan gang feud. Dowdall, who last week pleaded guilty to facilitating Mr Byrne's murder by making a hotel room available to be used by the Hutch gang ahead of the murder, will never again live in Ireland, a garda told the three-judge Special Criminal Court this morning.

Former INLA terrorist Dessie O'Hare, who was known as "The Border Fox", has withdrawn his appeal against the severity of his sentence for falsely imprisoning a family. His barrister had suggested that he was being sentenced for the sins of the past, rather than the present.

He was referring to a kidnapping O’Hare carried out in the 1980s, for which he was sentenced to 40 years before being released early under The Good Friday Agreement.

A teenager was attacked, falsely imprisoned, sexually abused and had "666" carved into his forehead during a four-day “reign of terror” in a County Cavan house, with some of the attack being uploaded to Snapchat, a court has heard. The main male accused (27) subjected the victim (19) to the ordeal after forming the “irrational” view that the victim had “ratted” on him, based on the fact that the victim had not been served a charge sheet upon his release from custody after being found in possession of drugs.

A legally blind Dublin pensioner who did not expect her cannabis plants to grow as large as they did has been acquitted of possessing close to a third of a kilogram of the drug for sale or supply. Evelyn Corrigan (68) of Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possession of 325.7 grams of cannabis at her home on 11 December 2017, but denied selling it – arguing she was only making medicine to treat her pain.

In her opening remarks at the Court of Appeal today, Gemma O'Doherty described as "barbaric" the restrictions introduced to counter a virus she said was the "common cold". Ms O'Doherty said the Irish people and the economy were suffering as a result of "draconian and unconstitutional" measures brought in over an "alleged pandemic".

A former Irish Times worker told gardaí that boredom at work and curiosity about the internet led him to produce and distribute hundreds of graphic images and videos of child abuse. Frederick Hunt (74) was caught after an FBI investigation linked an email address involved in the trading of “child pornography” to his home in Ballinteer, Co Dublin.

A masked mob armed with a hatchet and petrol bomb tried to storm their way into a Dublin city centre nightclub, the circuit court has heard. Moses Lulendo (19) joined up with the group of males, some with their faces covered, which tried to push past doormen at Lost Lane nightclub off Grafton St, in the city centre on July 7, 2019.

A jury has convicted a man (52) of coercive control, intimidation and multiple assaults of his former partner, after the first trial under the 2018 Domestic Violence Act. Speaking afterwards outside court, Chief Superintendent Finbarr Murphy urged victims of abuse or control in a relationship to come forward and said they will be fully supported.

"You do not have to put up with this behaviour," he said.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt this morning ordered the lifting of all reporting restrictions on the naming of a convicted child rapist, saying he considers this was “in the public interest”.

The 56-year-old defendant had argued that he cannot be identified because of the Children Act. The convicted child rapist had also told the court that he would be in danger if his identity was to be published and he didn't think “it would be the best thing” for him right now.

The "natural and ordinary meaning of the term 'child' does not encompass a deceased child or an adult", a High Court judge said today as he commented on a recent Court of Appeal decision that child homicide victims should not be identified. Section 252 of the Children Act 2001 provides mandatory and automatic reporting restrictions in the case of “any proceedings for an offence against a child”.

A man who stripped naked and began throwing slates from the roof of his home at armed gardai was on a cocktail of alcohol and cocaine at the time, a court has heard. A garda hostage negotiator had to be called in to get David Saunders (29) down from the building at Fassaugh Avenue in Cabra, Dublin.

Former FAI CEO John Delaney has rejected claims by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement that he is engaging in conduct that would paralyse the corporate watchdog's investigative powers. In a sworn statement, Mr Delaney said he needs extra time to examine files, including the contents of his emails, so he can set out what he says is covered by legal professional privilege and thus cannot be used by the ODCE as part of its criminal investigation into the FAI.