Judge frustrated at hold up in South Donegal sex case trials

A judge has expressed frustration over the trial of five men accused of a string of sex offences against a girl when she was 12 and 13.
Judge John O’Hagan was told at Donegal Circuit Court that the trial earlier this year of a sixth man took two weeks.
Judge O’Hagan noted that four Circuit Court judges are already “tied up” with tribunals and the others were “working flat out”.
He adjourned the case to the next scheduled sitting of the court in March.
A judge has expressed frustration over the trial of five men accused of a string of sex offences against a girl when she was 12 and 13.
Judge John O’Hagan was told at Donegal Circuit Court that the trial earlier this year of a sixth man took two weeks.
The five, now aged between 23 and 33, face charges of sexual assault on the girl on dates between 1st July and 30th November 2003.
Former army private Kenneth McDonald, a 34-year-old father of three of Ernedale Heights, Ballyshannon, was jailed in June for three years – nine months of the sentence suspended – when he was convicted by a jury on four counts of sexual assault on the girl.
His trial heard that the offences occurred in his car near woodlands in south Donegal.