'It's a courtroom, not a cafe, not a bus stop,' says judge as she sends man to cells for contempt

A JUDGE has warned she will not tolerate people in court behaving as if they are in a cafe or at a bus stop.

Judge Martina Baxter made her comments during a sitting of Limerick Circuit Court after she placed a man in custody for contempt of court.

After the man, whose aged in his mid 40s, approached his barrister as he was dealing with another case, Judge Baxter, pictured below, stopped proceedings and ordered gardai to remove him from the courtroom and to take him to the holding cells.

“You have shown a cheek and discourtesy to this court,” she said to the man whose case was not one of those listed before the court.

The man protested saying he had approached his barrister “quietly” to inform him that he had an appointment elsewhere and had to leave the courthouse.

At the end of the day the man was brought back to courtroom 4 at Limerick Courthouse, Mulgrave Street.

Judge Baxter told the man’s barrister, Brian McInerney, that what had happened an hour earlier was “symptomatic of the malaise that is entrenched in courtrooms across the country”.

While accepting that the man had not intended to disrupt the court proceedings, she said courtrooms are “not like a bus station” and that people need to behave appropriately when in court..

She said every individual who has a case before the courts is entitled to expect that their case will be listened to by all of the parties involved.

“It applies to everyone, they want the same equal treatment,” she said. “It is a courtroom – not a cafe, not a bus station,” she added.

Addressing the court on behalf of his client, Mr McInerney said his time in the cells had been an “extremely sobering experience” and that he acknowledged his behaviour was discourteous and was not acceptable.

“He has learned a life-long lesson in a short period of time,” he said. “It was a short sharp shock,” he added.

Having heard from Mr McInerney and noting his submissions, the judge directed that the man be released from custody.