A medical doctor has been in court charged with more than 200 counts of sexually and indecently assaulting almost 40 of his patients.
Dr James Barry, 79, of Lauriston Lodge, Glanmire, Co Cork was first charged with the offences in November 1997.
But the proceedings have been suspended since then while Dr Barry pursued High Court and Supreme Court actions to halt his prosecution.
It is almost 10 years since a young woman first complained to gardaí that she had been indecently assaulted by Dr Barry. She claimed he made video recordings of her while she was naked or semi-naked on a number of occasions.
A garda investigation began and around 40 other women made similar complaints against Dr Barry.
In June 1995 gardaí seized a number of videotapes after searches of Dr Barry's clinic, his consulting rooms, and his home.
He was charged two years later with 237 counts of sexually and indecently assaulting 42 of his patients.
But almost immediately he took proceedings in the High Court and later in the Supreme Court seeking to halt the prosecution, but these ended in failure last December.
Dr Barry was back before the District Court in Cork today, where the proceedings against him were re-listed.
His solicitor, David O'Mahony, complained that there had been an inordinate delay in processing the prosecution. However, he accepted that six years of that delay was down to the legal actions initiated by Dr Barry himself.
Inspector Michael Comyns told the court it had taken gardaí several months to make contact with all of the alleged injured parties in this case to see if they wished to proceed with their complaints, given the six-year delay.
Four of the women did not and today Inspector Tom Hayes applied to have more than two dozen of the original 237 charges withdrawn, while the remainder stand.
Dr Barry's half-hour appearance in court was his first since he was charged more than seven years ago. He can expect to go on trial within the next 12 months.
In the meantime, he has been remanded on bail.
