Mr. David French:

To expand on this point, my concern - I think I mentioned this elsewhere - is that following a killing, when there has not yet been a verdict, there are lots of theories about what happened. The accused will be throwing out their defence. There will be people saying, "Oh, it was an accident" and this and that. If a member of the public or of CFA-Tusla is exposed to this defence, they might take a very sympathetic view. If they are in a position to frustrate the process or do something, that would be bad. The victim's family etc. cannot say anything in the time between when the killing happens and the verdict lands. You are afraid of upsetting a trial and you are not familiar with the situation, so you cannot say anything. The only story out there is the one from the defence and that can be very persuasive. There should be no way that anyone can stop the family law court looking at the situation following a verdict.