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The parents of a Scottish teenager who died after being targeted by an Instagram sextortion gang have launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta in the US. Murray Dowey, 16, died at his family home in Dunblane in December 2023 after being deceived into sharing intimate images with an Instagram a

Funding of £119 million has been set aside by the Northern Ireland Executive to cover costs relating to a major PSNI data breach. An unprecedented PSNI data breach in August 2023 saw the names, roles and other personal details of all serving police officers and civilian staff inadvertently pub

Judge Philip Gilpin has been appointed by the Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland as presiding County Court judge and recorder of Belfast. His appointment to the senior judicial posts took effect yesterday and will be for a period of five years.

Mark Dunne SC and Micheál O’Connell SC have been nominated for appointment to the High Court bench. The pair will fill vacancies arising from the elevation of Mr Justice Alexander Owens to the Court of Appeal in September and the upcoming retirement of Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring.

UK government ministers are continuing to snub calls to meet with lawyers representing pro-Palestinian activists embarking on the UK's biggest prison hunger strike since the Irish republican hunger strikes of 1981. Lawyers acting for remand prisoners weeks into an open-ended hunger strike while awai

Solicitor Stephen Kelly has established a new legal practice in Dublin. The new firm, Stephen Kelly Law on Baggot Street Lower, Dublin 2, will offer services in the areas of criminal law, medical negligence, personal injury, defamation, data protection and residential tenancies law.

Lithuania's parliament has voted to give a cat the power to sack the head of the country's national broadcaster. Opposition MPs succeeded in passing the so-called "cat amendment" this week in protest of controversial government-backed reforms.

Greater harmonisation of domestic abuse laws north and south of the border would help to prevent abusers evading accountability, a Northern Ireland solicitor has said. Claire Edgar, partner in Belfast firm Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors, recently participated in a panel discussion hosted by the N

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is to carry out a full Phase 2 investigation into the proposed purchase of OCL Laundry Services by Elis. Elis SA and OCL Laundry Services Limited are both active in the outsourced supply of flat linen rental and maintenance services in the St

A citizens' assembly should be held on AI policy and ethics, an Oireachtas committee has recommended. The recommendation is one of 85 included in the first interim report of the joint committee on artificial intelligence, which was published yesterday.

Human rights campaigners have expressed disappointment after the UK Supreme Court ruled that the disclosure of evidence in a Troubles-related inquest could be blocked on national security grounds. Judges today handed down their unanimous judgment in a case concerning a decision by a coroner to discl

Ireland's agri-food regulator is to gain new powers to assist its work on price and market analysis. An Rialálaí Agraibhia has a statutory mandate to carry out price and market analysis to improve transparency and equity throughout the agri-food supply chain.

The UK government has accepted the recommendations of an independent review of the post-Brexit Windsor Framework. Lord Murphy of Torfaen was commissioned by the government in January to lead an independent review of the deal, which was published in September.

The Irish government has set out plans to legislate to assist the UK public inquiry into the Omagh bombing. The inquiry, which began in July 2024, is examining the preventability of the 1998 bombing, which was orchestrated by the Real IRA and led to the deaths of 29 people and two unborn children as

Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring is to retire from the High Court bench this week. The US-born judge called to the bar in 1985 and took silk in 2002, before being appointed as a Circuit Court judge in 2012 and then to the High Court in 2015.