Contempt case against Peter Hain to begin in Belfast

Peter Hain on the Andrew Marr show Peter Hain faces contempt of court proceedings over comments in his memoir

Contempt of court proceedings against the former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain are due to begin on Tuesday at the High Court in Belfast.

The legal action is being taken by NI's Attorney General, John Larkin, over criticism of a judge in Mr Hain's autobiography.

Mr Hain said he was astonished the legal action was being taken.

The case concerns comments in his autobiography about Lord Justice Paul Girvan.

In the book, Mr Hain was also critical of one of the judgements Mr Justice Girvan made in Belfast six years ago.

The case is being taken by Mr Larkin on the basis that Mr Hain's criticisms undermined the administration of justice and constituted unwarranted abuse of a judge.

More Northern Ireland stories

RSS

Features & Analysis

Elsewhere on the BBC

  • Green city A leaf from nature's book

    Cities rely on systems which pollute our world, but that will all change in the future, writes Rachel Armstrong

Programmes

  • A graphic of a person and the Earth respresenting the world wide webClick Watch

    David Reid visits Cern to find out about the plans to restore the world's first web page

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.