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February 12th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
‘The Chief’ brings case to the Supreme Court
LITIGATION: Pat O’Donnell
by Aine Ryan
The Mayo News
07 February 2012
A CORRIB gas protester who was recently the subject of successful defamation proceedings taken by a former Mayo garda, has appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Fisherman, Pat O’Donnell, known locally as ‘The Chief’, claimed in proceedings before the High Court that Circuit Court Judge Margaret Heneghan ‘could be perceived to be biased’ in her ruling, because she attended a County Mayo secondary school for a time in the 1970s with the claimant, retired Sergeant James Gill. Mr Gill policed the Corrib protests for a number of years and sat on the monitoring committee.
However, High Court judge, Justice Michael Peart last month refused leave to take the ex-parte Judicial Review. The Judicial Review was applied for, on behalf of Mr O’Donnell, by Michael P O’Higgins SC and Leo Mulrooney JC, instructed by solicitor Alan Gannon.
Justice Peart told the court on January 23 that, in his view, there was not a perceived bias and that the case did not reach the threshold of arguablility. Moreover, he said he did not regard that the personal connections between the judge and the former garda were capable of amounting to objective bias when weighed against the judicial oath.
Counsel for Mr O’Donnell argued if his client had known that the judge and Mr Gill had attended the same school he would have applied for the judge to recuse herself from the case.
Documents submitted to Judge Peart stated that Judge Heneghan attended Jesus and Mary Secondary School, Gortnor Abbey from 1972 until 1977 and that Mr Gill attended the school to repeat his Leaving Certificate in the academic year 1976-1977. The documents also stated that both the judge and Mr Gill attended a school reunion in the Dolphin Hotel in Crossmolina in 1997.
On January 27, counsel for Mr O’Donnell lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court. When contacted by The Mayo News last night both Mr O’Donnell and his solicitor, Alan Gannon declined to comment on the matter.
Read more: The Chief cries foul
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