A couple whose illegally built home in Co Meath has been demolished are due before the High Court on Monday to respond to a judge finding them in contempt of court.
Neil McNelis, the solicitor representing Michael and Rose Murray, told The Irish Times on Sunday the couple will attend the proceedings in the Four Courts, Dublin on Monday.
Rose Murray was on her way back from abroad for that purpose, he said.
Meath County Council last month initiated contempt proceedings against the couple, alleging they had breached their undertakings to deliver vacant possession of their luxury house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen.
The undertakings were provided in 2020, with a stay to September 2020 to facilitate delivery of vacant possession. They were given as part of a settlement of previous contempt proceedings brought by the council against the couple.
The demolished ruins of the property built by Chris and Rose Murray months after the council refused permission in June 2006 for a house half the size. Photograph: Alan Betson
The council and the Murrays have been in a protracted legal saga since the couple built their five-bedroom 588 sq m (6,220 sq ft) home months after the council refused permission in June 2006 for a house half the size.
After the Murrays failed to appear before Judge Richard Humphreys earlier this month to answer the contempt charges, and were not represented, he found them in contempt and made attachment orders on March 9th enabling gardaí to arrest and bring them before the court to respond.
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Having been told on March 16th that gardaí had been unable to locate the couple, and access to the house was impeded by large steel containers, the judge directed gardaí could assist the council in accessing the property and demolition could get under way.
The Meath home built without planning permission. Photograph: Barry Cronin
At a further hearing on March 18th, having been told by the council of further alleged “aggravating factors” in regard to compliance with the undertakings, the judge ordered demolition should be speedily completed.
The following day, in another hearing via remote link, Neil McNelis, solicitor for the Murrays, asked the judge to stall demolition and the contempt proceedings pending an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), over alleged violation of their rights that he had initiated in February.
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McNelis argued there was no contempt by his clients and the council’s application for their attachment was seeking to have them “do a walk of shame in front of the media”.
There was no basis for finding the Murrays in breach of their undertakings because another High Court order had rendered the undertakings “academic”, he argued.
Rose Murray is in remission from cancer and is very anxious, he said. His clients and their children are “evicted”, have “lost everything” and have been “punished enough”, he said.
Damaged doors and glass at the house in Co Meath. Photograph: Barry Cronin
Barrister Deirdre Hughes, for the council, argued there was no basis for the court to revisit any of its orders and described the application to the ECHR as “unstateable”.
The Murrays’ undertaking was “very clear”, the property was to be vacated and they were to facilitate the demolition, she said. It was only because of the council initiating contempt proceedings the undertaking was complied with “to some extent”, she said.
In response to concerns raised by McNelis about contempt matter, the judge said he was approaching the contempt procedure as a “coercive”, rather than a criminal, process.
If the ECHR made any order affecting the domestic court process, and his own experience is that “rarely happens”, he would take notice of it, the judge said.
The couple had the option of putting in sworn statements for Monday’s hearing, he said.
