The Bible should be replaced with a civil oath and witnesses who
commit perjury should be prosecuted, a former district judge has
suggested.Mr Pattwell served 21 years on the bench, mainly in North and East Cork. He said the country was, by the day, becoming more multi- cultural although it was still regarded as a country with a Christian ethos.
“Some people feel they are going to be prejudiced [against] if they declare they’re not a Christian and then take a Christian oath. They shouldn’t be put in that position,” he said.
“If you are going to hand the Bible to somebody who doesn’t believe or has no intention of telling the truth, it’s an insult to religious people who do believe in it.”
An option to swearing on the Bible, he suggested, was a civil oath along the lines of “I honestly and sincerely affirm that the evidence I will give will be the truth”. Furthermore, he believes that before a witness takes any oath, the case judge should remind them perjury is a crime. However, he said cases of perjury were not being prosecuted in the way they should be.
“Perjury laws were first introduced in the reign of Elizabeth I and a conviction resulted in a £40 fine, or six months in jail if it wasn’t paid. Under George II it was seven years hard labour or transportation.”
However, he said the offence of perjury very rarely led to a prosecution.
“I don’t think I’ve seen one perjury case concluded. I’ve seen people threatened with being charged with perjury, but never seen one case concluded and the district court would have jurisdiction to hear such cases. A number of well-known personalities have given false evidence and haven’t been prosecuted.
“Perjury should be followed more vigorously as respect for the courts has diminished in recent years. If it’s obvious that perjury has been committed and it’s not followed up it’s only an encouragement for more people to commit it.”