RTÉ NEWS REPORTS that former district court judge Heather Perrin has been sentenced to two-and-a-half-years in prison for deception.
The 61-year-old is the first member of Ireland’s judiciary to be convicted of a crime and sent to jail.
She was found guilty of deceiving an elderly client out of half his €1 million estate. The Malahide resident had denied including her two children as major beneficiaries of Thomas Davis’s estate.
Although she had professed her innocence during her trial, she accepted the jury’s unanimous decision today.
It has been reported widely that the former solicitor held back tears on hearing her immediate and custodial sentence.
She resigned from the bench on Monday to avoid an embarrassing impeachment process.
Reading her judgement, Justice Mary Ellen Ring said the act of deception by a solicitor would have a profound effect on a profession which operates primarily on trust.
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