Judge who ordered demolition of million-euro home hits back at 'under-informed commentators'
The High Court judge who ordered the demolition of a million-euro mansion has taken a swipe at the ‘under-informed commentators scrambling to their keyboards’ who criticised his decision.
Judge Richard Humphreys issued a 47-page written judgment yesterday, in which he set out ‘for the record’ the events that led to Rose and Chris Michael Murray being found in contempt of court.
He said it was the tenth written ruling in the case, which he noted had dragged through the courts for 20 years since the couple were first refused planning permission, but, he said, ‘the law got there in the end’.
Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
The judge said: ‘I also appreciate that this is the sort of case that sends Ireland’s standing army of energetic but under-informed commentators scrambling to their keyboards to report for combat duty, many with a pre-fabricated narrative of oppressive establishment versus plucky individual.’
He said he would ‘attempt to highlight why the council acted correctly…more in the hope than the expectation of carrying out an educational role in that regard’.
After being refused planning permission in June 2006, the Murrays had proceeded, without permission, to construct an unauthorised structure about twice the size of the one already refused, he said.
Rose Murray leaving court. Pic: Collins Courts
The Murrays had repeatedly failed to move out to allow the council to demolish the house, breaching undertakings they had given to do so, he said.
Explaining why he had found the couple to be in contempt of court in March this year, and why he had enforced a Supreme Court order approving the demolition of the house, he said: ‘Because we live in a republic based on equality before the law, the court can’t accept excuses from one person unless it is prepared to accept such excuses from everybody.
‘If housing shortages were to allow circumvention of planning control then there is no planning control.
Chris Murray leaving the High Court. Pic: Fran Veale
‘Allowing this development to stand would completely negate democratically adopted planning legislation. People across the country who get negative decisions are expected to comply with those – it would cause not just resentment but lawlessness if they saw other people getting away with not doing so. Anything other than demolition would come with a massive cost to equality before the law and to social cohesion.’
The 6,200sq ft, five-bedroom mansion at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, near Navan, Co. Meath, was demolished in March and the site restored to its former state.
In media interviews at the time, Rose Murray offered the property to charity and remarked: ‘With the housing crisis going on, it’s a shame to knock a house that could home people in need.’
Demolition work underway at a property in Bohermeen, Co Meath. Pic: RollingNews.ie
She acknowledged the family had made a mistake in building the house without planning permission but criticised council planners for failing to negotiate with them.She said her family were homeless and ‘on the side of the street’.
Judge Humphreys said the wheels of justice had ground slowly by any standards in the case. However, he observed: ‘Without taking from the fact that the outcome is uncomfortable for the respondents or wishing to add unnecessarily to that discomfiture, it is ultimately a vindication of the rule of law, the principle of equal justice and the integrity of the planning system that the law got there in the end.’
The contempt proceedings were ultimately discharged after the couple gave undertakings to the High Court agreeing to fully co-operate with Meath County Council and gardaí in relation to demolition works on the site.
