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Gerard O'Brien (judge)
Irish judge From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gerard O'Brien (born 14 November 1964) is an Irish judge and lawyer who served as a Judge of the Circuit Court from 2015 to 2024. Prior to his appointment, he was state solicitor for North Tipperary and practiced as a solicitor in Thurles. He was formerly a secondary school teacher and a local politician.
In December 2023, he was found guilty of attempted rape and sexual assault. He resigned as a judge the following month.
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Early life
O'Brien was born in 1964. He was born without arms and with one leg as a result of the thalidomide drug.[1] A documentary on RTÉ Radio 1 in 1992 profiled O'Brien and his mother and their experiences of his disability.[2] He attended University College Dublin, from where he graduated in 1986 with a law degree. He later obtained a higher diploma in education in 1987 and master of law in criminology and criminal justice in 2012 from UCD.[3]
He was a secondary school teacher in a Dublin school during the 1990s.[4] He founded Phoenix Productions, a youth musical theatre group in Thurles, in 1998.[5]
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Legal and political career
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Following his teaching career, O'Brien qualified as a solicitor in March 2003.[6] He first worked at two Dublin firms, Garrett Sheehan & Co Solicitors and Roger Greene & Sons Solicitors.[1]
O'Brien established his own practice in Thurles, Gerard O'Brien Solicitors, in 2006.[1] His practice was involved in childcare, mental health and criminal cases in the courts.[7][8][9] The firm was frequently retained by the Child and Family Agency to act for people appointed to the role of guardian at litem.[10] In 2013, he acted for the guardian ad litem appointed to Samantha Azzopardi in the High Court. It was initially believed that Azzopardi was a child, but it was subsequently determined that she was a woman in her twenties.[11][12] The case attracted media attention in several countries and was featured on Con Girl, a documentary on Paramount+.[12][13][14]
O'Brien was elected to Thurles Town Council in the 2009 local elections for Fianna Fáil and served as deputy mayor of Thurles.[15][2] He was appointed state solicitor for North Tipperary in April 2012 and resigned his position as councillor.[16] He was replaced on the council by Gerard Fogarty.[17] As state solicitor, he brought a prosecution against Michael Lowry for tax law offences in 2014, serving the book of evidence on Lowry in April 2014.[18][19]
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Judicial career
O'Brien was nominated to the Circuit Court to fill a vacancy created by Margaret Heneghan.[20] He was appointed in February 2015.[21] Initially based in Dublin,[1] he was later assigned to the Cork circuit.[22] He heard cases including those involving drugs offences, sexual offences, criminal damage, assault, theft, arson, and road traffic offences.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In 2018, O'Brien reviewed an essay written by a man appealing a conviction of drugs possession. On the basis of the essay, he dismissed the conviction.[23] He has heard civil cases involving personal injuries and mental distress.[30][31]
Following his criminal conviction, O'Brien resigned on 5 January 2024.[32][33]
Trial and conviction
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In 2019, the Garda Síochána received formal complaints from six men about O'Brien relating to events from 1991 to 1997.[2] Four complainants were students in the school where he taught and two knew O'Brien from his home town.[34] He initially denied to Gardaí having had sexual contact any with the complainants, but later claimed he had consensual relations with three of them.[35] He was charged in 2021[2] with one count of attempted rape and eight counts of sexual assault.[35]
The four-week trial presided over by Alexander Owens in the Central Criminal Court concluded on 22 December 2023. O'Brien pleaded not guilty.[34] Five of the complainants said that they were sexually assaulted after waking up next to O'Brien and the sixth said that he was sexually assaulted in the toilet of a pub.[35] A ten-person jury found O'Brien guilty of the nine charges.[35][36]
As a result of his conviction, O'Brien is on the sex offender register. He will be sentenced in March 2024.[34][36]
Following the trial, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that she was consulting with the Attorney General Rossa Fanning on "the options open to the Government and the Oireachtas".[37] One the complainants and several politicians made statements seeking his resignation.[38][39][40] He later resigned.[33]
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References
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