State not opposed to overturning public order conviction of Jemima Burke
The State will not oppose an order overturning a public order conviction imposed last year on Jemima Burke in connection with videoing a coroner and hospital staff, the High Court has heard.
However, the State argued the matter should still be sent back to the original court for a new hearing.
In November, the High Court permitted Ms Burke to seek a review of her case after she alleged her constitutional rights were breached when she was arrested, charged and convicted of a public order offence within a matter of hours.
Ms Burke, a sister of the teacher Enoch Burke, was convicted of a public order offence on June 20th last year by Judge Vincent Deane in Ballina District Court, Co Mayo.
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On Thursday she compared the conviction to 'something you would see in the Middle Ages'.
Ms Burke (30), a management consultant in professional services and a University of Galway graduate in journalism, said she attended an inquest in Swinford, Co Mayo, on June 20th, concerning the death of a sepsis patient at Mayo University Hospital (MUH).
She said the man spent 42 hours on a trolley, then went missing while in hospital care and was later found dead in a river in Castlebar.
She said she used her phone to film the coroner and several MUH staff on the public street during the inquest's break for lunch.
A garda arrested Ms Burke, confiscated her phone and brought her to Ballina Garda station where she was detained in a cell for more than two hours. She was then charged with two public order offences relating to a breach of the peace.
She said she refused to sign a bail bond when she appeared before Judge Deane.
Judge Deane, she said, told her it would be unjust to adjourn the matter if she was not going to sign the bond, that there was little chance of her going to prison and that he had 'to protect your interests at some level, too'.
Ms Burke said a garda had made a number of allegations in the trial, including that she had obstructed paths of individuals and shoved her phone into their faces. She said the phone footage would clearly have had probative value, but it was in the possession of the gardaí at that stage.
Judge Deane convicted her of one of the public order offences, under section six of the Public Order Act, with the other taken into consideration. He fined her €350.
At the High Court on Thursday, Ms Burke argued she had been the victim of a 'serious' miscarriage of justice as there was 'excessive haste' in hearing the original case and no disclosure was made to her at her trial.
She also had no legal representation, had been detained in a cell for two hours and was 'railroaded' into trial just 55 minutes after leaving the cells.
Kieran Kelly, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told Ms Justice Sara Phelan she can exercise her power of discretion to remit the matter to the District Court for a different judge to hear.
A remittal would remedy matters for Ms Burke and give her the time required to prepare a case, he said.
Mr Kelly said the DPP was not opposing the quashing of the original conviction.
Ms Justice Phelan reserved judgment.
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