Sara Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival - Thread 2

[TwoLoonsAndASprout]

Continuation of previous thread - don’t have all the details to hand to add here, so if someone can pop them on, pls do! Want to get this up quickly!

Sorry - https://archive.ph/vzVWP

People doing newspaper research may find this useful for some sites removepaywalls.com/

Yes well spotted. I’d noted that too.

Yes the impression I got was it was very much SD and EJ as a team against NC.

Which is an interesting dynamic, given it's not SM 'on trial' here.

SD appeared to be defending the panel. The more I think about it, the more inappropriate it feels to me.

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160820153951/re3group.com/view.php?PID=47&TID=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160820153951/re3group.com/view.php?PID=47&TID=2

Says she was visiting Prof at University of Ulster and Tutor at Queens Belfast. ??

So from the Irish Times article Mr McKeown was 60 in 2014. And from the appointments letter it says the Industrial appointees have to retire at 70.

So are we not there with Mr McKeown?

Yes that was found by others way back in the threads and much further investigation has been done since. I recommend going back though as it makes great reading.

The judge has been very good at asking - if it appears a barrister is moving to a new point - whether it is a good time to take a break and whether the witness or barristers require one. When she does this I haven't noticed her checking with the panel.

That would be Reg Empey. I'm trying to recall there was some scandal around him.
Also looking at that list of who he appointed, I knew several of them on the union side of things.
Small world.

There may be someone around with more recent legal ken than me, but I believe the compulsory retirement age is now 75, in line with judiciary and also with lay panel members across the water.

Panel members can get time off work for hearings with the agreement of their employer, but in the nature of things you get more availability out of people who have retired from their day jobs.

Also, the numbers are really low at the moment. Members get recruited through bulk campaigns, and DfE kept promising to have one, but it kept being put off for reasons I can't remember.

@SionnachRuadh in awe of your wisdom on this subject - very interesting

Michelle is a laugh because she always says no then as sure as transwomen are men - NC starts leading her somewhere she doesn’t want to go and she bolts for the toilets.

You did not need a break two minutes ago love. Does the hard question make you need to pee?

Exactly.

And if the given reason for the panel reducing from 3 to 2 for this hearing is that this panel member was struggling with the travel and sitting time, and things got so bad that she had to interrupt the hearing and rush out to take medication, then surely a proper review of the situation needs to taken place. A long term condition should be appropriately managed to prevent urgent interruptions and leaving a panel with a case part heard. Surely?

I know a clatter of them myself.

The public appointments system was reformed after the Lennon litigation in 2012, when Conor Murphy was put in the embarrassing position of having to say under oath that he didn't know this prominent figure who lived in his constituency, and he definitely wasn't engaging in cronyism or discrimination by appointing the one Catholic on a shortlist with four Protestants, and the tribunal said they found his evidence unconvincing.

These days a minister can't appoint anyone who hasn't been found suitable for appointment by the selection panel, and their reasons for the appointment are supposed to be recorded - I don't know if they're FOIable.

Of course there are some odd cases like with tribunal lay members who were originally appointed back in the days of Noah's Ark and are pro forma reappointed until retirement age.

@TwoLoonsAndASprout
It’s not clear that he was the journalist who flagged an issue - in fact all evidence points to it not being him.

It wasn't Nick. Although he did observe and report the odd behaviour of the Prof.

I’ve only read from the Friday morning (and a little bit further back trying to get the gist of what was going on) and everything has been happening so quickly and has been so interesting that I’ve not read the entire first thread. I can’t wait until Monday to see if this type of thing continues.

Keep up the good work everyone. It’s been an unbelievably fascinating read. You couldn’t make it up.

And yet, assuming this is the same 'D. Boyd' as on the list of panel members of tribunals in 2009-10 which @SionnachRuadh posted late last night, she was 'Prof' in 2010!

I’m seeing Mickey McKeown from Bessbrook who went to Abbey CBS in Newry.

So a name variant is a thing.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkl5rzd7ggo.amp

From 2:18

This really clarifies what you were saying @BettyBooper.

Why is he invested in the panels' honour- beyond wanting to be part of a just and fair process?

He doesn't choose the panel and they are hearing the case for which he represents the Respondant. Why did he need to defend them and co team with them?

Really really odd.

Also reiterates that the third panel member stepped down for health reasons only. So states that the recusal application was denied in full.

Also states the judges insistence that the case will continue on Monday with just 2 panel members. We shall see.

Sorry that image 👆is so tiny!

do we know if there will be any expert witnesses and if so, who?

Re dashing out of the room

I am a 60 year old woman
I'd grab my handbag before ANYTHING (including my kids) if leaving a room for a medical issue
as it would have my drugs and the rest

nothing weirder than a woman of my age leaving her handbag behind

Thank you for the thread, I had to get a flight when this was kicking off so missed the drama.

I'll be charitable & suggest she might have left her meds in her coat pocket. As I'm being so bafflingly charitable, I'll also point out that any pain or urgency may have been digestive. More than half of fibro patients have co-ocurring IBS or symptoms very like IBS & such things can come on of a sudden. In that case, it would be less humiliating to reference the fibro' alone than to mention specifics & leave people wondering if one may have rushed out to avoid soiling oneself, or simply to have the privacy a really roaring fart requires.
This is of course, not a diagnosis, merely another speculative point to bear in mind.

Micheal McKeown might be critical in sorting out this mess. If he has any brains and self-preservation he should be obtaining legal advice over the weekend.