The Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, has indicated that the Government may legislate to limit the publication of Victim Impact Statements in the wake of comments made last night by Mr Justice Paul Carney.
Delivering a lecture to the Law Society at University College Cork, Mr Justice Carney referred, though not by name, to the trial of Wayne O'Donoghue, who was convicted of killing the Co Cork schoolboy, Robert Holohan.
The judge said that the Victim Impact Statement given in court by the boy's mother, Majella Holohan, had frustrated his intention of providing for the reconstruction of Wayne O'Donoghue's life.
Mr Justice Carney said O'Donoghue had been branded a paedophile when the tabloid press enthusiastically adopted Ms Holohan's comments.
Ms Holohan had revealed for the first time in her statement that semen had been found on her son's body. However, Mr Lenihan pointed out that this was not linked to O'Donoghue.
Mr Lenihan said one way of approaching the issue would be to give a judge the power to curtail the publication of matters that were not factually established in court.
Ms Holohan (right) has insisted that at no time did she court the media, saying she was offended and hurt by Justice Carney's remarks last night.
She defended her reference to the semen found on her son's body, and said she would not have done Robert justice if she had not done so.
Ms Holohan had also revealed in her victim impact statement that his mobile phone had been wiped clean of finger-prints and that images had been deleted from it. The jury had not been told about this during the trial.
Ms Holohan's solicitor has also issued a statement defending his client. Ernest Cantillon said it would be unfair and unrealistic to expect a mother of a child who has been killed in the circumstances in which Robert died to sanitise her statement for the benefit of the killer.
He said victims do not approach the effect of a crime on them in the same way as judges, who have legal training. And he said it was wholly unreal to expect victims to exclude from the minds the features which surround the killing.
Mr Cantillon said the rights of the victim must be balanced against the offender's rights and after conviction, offenders' rights diminish.
