The personal computer of the judge who is facing possible impeachment over child pornography allegations is now being stored in a safe vault in Leinster House, after being handed over by gardaí.
The computer, which belongs to Judge Brian Curtin, has been at the centre of a two-year legal battle between the judge and an Oireachtas Committee which is investigating his conduct.
It was handed over to the clerk of the committee yesterday evening, in the presence of legal teams and computer experts representing both the judge and the committee.
It has been stored in the Garda Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Harcourt Street in Dublin, since Judge Curtin was acquitted of possessing child pornography over two years ago. He was acquitted after it emerged that the warrant used to search his house and seize his computer was out of date.
In addition to the computer, the committee has also taken possession of all the documents seized by gardaí at the time of the search, which are thought to include diaries, note books and credit card records.
The two computer experts will now take mirror images of the computer's discs and then analyse their contents, a process which could take between five and seven weeks.
The committee, which is chaired by Fianna Fáil's Denis O'Donovan, is now hoping to receive the reports from the experts in mid-July, and possibly to hold whatever hearings are necessary in September.
They will then lay the evidence they have collected before the Houses of the Oireachtas, which will then decide whether Judge Curtin should be removed from office.
