Woman who took photo in Cork court risked remand

A WOMAN taking a photograph in Cork District Court today risked being remanded in custody overnight for contempt of court but she insisted that she only took a photograph of herself in the courtroom, adding: “I was only seeing what I looked like.”

Leanne Hegarty had her phone confiscated by Garda Conor O’Callaghan, who brought to the attention of Judge Mary Dorgan that Ms Hegarty had taken a photo in Courtroom 1 of the courthouse at Anglesea Street, Cork.

Ms Hegarty, 30, who lives with Cork Simon Community, complained loudly: “The guard took my phone off me.” Judge Dorgan said, “I will find out in a minute why he did.” Ms Hegarty said, “Because I took a picture of myself. He needs a warrant to take the phone off me. He grabbed it out of my hand, your honour.”

The judge directed the garda to retain the phone for examination and told Ms Hegarty to leave the courtroom quietly and wait to be called before lunch in relation to her phone. The judge told the woman not to pass comments about the garda as she was leaving and not to disrupt the court.

Ms Hegarty complained to the judge, “You are just doing this in spite, like.” The judge repeated, “No photographs are allowed in court.” 

Ms Hegarty said, “You can’t see nothing only my face.”

Judge Dorgan said, “You are not going to be allowed to disrupt the court any more.”

About an hour later the case was called again and Garda O’Callaghan said he had examined the phone and was satisfied there was only one picture taken and it had not been shared. He said he had deleted it from the phone.

Judge Dorgan told the woman, as her phone was returned to her, she was lucky to be leaving court without being remanded in custody overnight for contempt of court. The judge said there were signs up and people were told every day that using phones or taking pictures was not allowed in court, and it was not fair on people with business in court who might appear in pictures like that.

Even following this explanation, Ms Hegarty, who was before the court on a public order charge dating back to December 2022, was not finished, saying again, “I was only seeing what I looked like.”