A HIGH COURT judge confirmed last week that Turkish authorities are investigating a possible criminal prosecution in light of the death of 20-year-old Mayo student nurse, Mary Linnane.
Mr Justice John Hedigan made his comments after admitting he was powerless to direct a Turkish hotel owner and Turkey’s public prosecution office to preserve the scene of an accident where the Glencastle native fell to her death from a fifth-floor balcony last month.
Mary’s father, Martin Linnane, had asked the High Court to direct travel company, Budget Travel Ltd, to preserve the scene and allow for an inspection but Judge Hedigan said because Turkey was outside the European Union it was beyond the court’s powers and those of Budget Travel to force anyone in Kusadasi to preserve the scene and allow expert inspection.
However, he did compliment Budget Travel Ltd for already having put pressure on the owner of the holiday complex in Kusadasi to preserve the window and balcony where the tragedy had occurred.
Mr Robert Beatty, counsel for Mr Linnane, said Mary Linnane was one of a group of 12 holidaymakers in the apartment complex at the time.
Mr Beatty said the window on to the balcony from which she fell had been open at the time and the hinges were defective. He said no repairs should be made to the window or balcony until the scene had been inspected by an engineer.
Mr Shane English, counsel for Budget Travel, said the problem was that the travel firm did not own or occupy the hotel apartments. He said Budget Travel could do nothing to allow experts to inspect the scene.
Mr Justice Hedigan then confirmed that the Turkish authorities were investigating a possible criminal prosecution. He said they and the prosecutor’s office had control of the matter and would allow no one on to the site of the accident.
The court had been told that an inspection had been carried out and that a report had been prepared for the public prosecutor. This would not be released until a decision had been made regarding the criminal investigation, he said.
While the court could not make any order which could be enforced in Turkey, the judge said he hoped that Budget Travel would share any report it received with Mr Linnane. He urged Budget Travel to keep up the pressure for preservation of the scene.
Mr English said Budget Travel would maintain every pressure on the owner of the complex to grant inspection and if the company could obtain a copy of the prosecutor’s report, it would be shared with Mr Linnane.
