A High Court judge withdrew an offer to release Enoch Burke from prison after the sacked schoolteacher engaged in a tirade of abuse against him.
Mr Burke accused Mr Justice Mark Sanfey of dishonesty and corruption just minutes after the judge offered him a path to freedom.
The offer was made during the latest review of Mr Burke’s detention for breaching court orders requiring him to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School.
The schoolteacher has spent 303 days in jail for contempt.
There were also ugly, but not unprecedented scenes, as several members of the schoolteacher’s family were removed from court for shouting at the judge and interrupting the hearing.
“It is a great shame and a disgrace that we have such scenes in an Irish courtroom,” said Mr Justice Sanfey after the last of them, Mr Burke’s brother Isaac, was carried out of the courtroom by several gardaí.
The judge had proposed releasing Enoch Burke, saying he could go home and reflect over the Easter holidays, during which time the Co Westmeath school would be closed for a period of two weeks.
He said that if Mr Burke returned to the school at that point, it would be open to its board of management to seek his attachment and committal again.
However, instead of addressing the judge’s proposal, Mr Burke started levelling accusations that a solicitor acting for the board had “lied” in an affidavit.
He then became angry at the judge, accusing him of refusing to deal with the “lies”.
After withdrawing the offer to release Mr Burke, the judge said, apart from making accusations of dishonesty and corruption against him, the schoolteacher had demonstrated he had “no interest in being released”.