A second man has appeared in court charged in connection with harassing a member of An Garda Síochána in Cork.

46-year-old Ross Lahive, a former European Elections candidate for the Irish People’s Party, of Church Street, Shandon, attended the Bridewell Garda Station by appointment earlier today, before being brought before a sitting of Cork District Court on a charge of harassing a garda on dates between 9 October 2022 and 6 February 2025.

Det. Sgt. Christopher Cahill said when arrested, charged and cautioned, Mr Lahive made no reply.

Judge Mary Dorgan was told that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed the summary disposal of the case at district court level on a signed plea of guilty.

She accepted jurisdiction on this basis.

The court was told the State had no objection to bail, subject to a number of conditions.

Det. Sgt. Cahill told Judge Dorgan that the charge arose allegedly from “a campaign of harassment” against the garda between October 2022 and February 2025.

Defence solicitor Diarmuid Kelleher sought an adjournment to facilitate the release of evidential material and to take instructions from his client. Judge Dorgan granted the application.

She remanded Mr Lahive on bail subject to a number of conditions to appear again before the district court on 20 November next.

The conditions include that Mr Lahive sign a bond of €1,000, that he sign on twice weekly at the Bridewell Garda Station, and that he had no direct or indirect contact with the victim or any witness in the case.

The conditions also include that he does not post any video or communications relating to the matter online, and that he possesses a charged mobile phone so that he can be contacted by gardaí.

An application for free legal aid was also granted.

A commercial partnership between the Late Late Toy Show and the fast fashion retailer Penneys will not go ahead this year, RTÉ has confirmed in a statement provided to RTÉ Investigates.

Penneys said the partnership was “paused” because the “Penneys ordering deadline for the Late Late Toy Show pyjamas coincided with the initial conversations with RTÉ Investigates.”

The RTÉ statement said that, while the Late Late Toy Show had previously partnered with Penneys, the commercial partnership would “not go ahead this year for a number of reasons.”

In previous years, the partnership included the production of Late Late Toy Show-branded pyjamas and socks.

The partnership ran for a decade and included donations by Penneys to the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal. In 2024, the company donated €100,000.

The statement was provided to RTÉ Investigates after its investigation, broadcast on Wednesday night, detailed how Bangladeshi factories that supplied major Irish retailers, including Penneys, were also sourcing cotton from two Chinese suppliers that had taken in Uyghur workers under a state-backed forced labour programme.

WATCH: RTÉ Investigates: Forced Fashion on the RTÉ Player

“There is no suggestion of any link between the [Toy Show] range and the questions raised in the programme,” Penneys told RTÉ Investigates.

Penneys said it was “very proud” of the ten years of the partnership, and that it “looked forward to revisiting the partnership next year.”

RTÉ Investigates also asked if RTÉ had commercial partnerships with any of the other retailers named in the programme, which included Marks and Spencer, Dunnes Stores, Tesco, and Shein.

It said: “RTÉ has had and continues to have relationships with a wide range of retailers, including those named in the programme.”

It also said that RTÉ “conducts due diligence on all commercial partners and keeps all commercial partners under review,” and that RTÉ did not have a commercial partnership with Shein.

“Any new information relating to possible work practices or ethical or environmental issues relating to commercial partners will be reviewed by RTÉ,” said the statement.

“Where necessary, assurances will be sought by RTÉ, and further action may be considered.”

Up to a third of the world’s cotton comes from the province of Xinjiang in China, where China has built a system of state repression targeting Muslim minorities, the largest being the Uyghurs.

The United Nations said in 2022 that the abuses committed by China – which include mass arbitrary detention, forced sterilisation, and forced labour – could amount to crimes against humanity.

READ: How forced Uyghur labour could be woven into your wardrobe

The revelations about these abuses led many clothing retailers to vow never to source from the region, but RTÉ Investigates found that systems cited by the retailers as protecting them from Xinjiang cotton were ineffective.

The Labour Party, citing the investigation, called for the passage of its Exploitation and Trafficking Bill, which would “establish a mandatory register for all businesses, compelling them to demonstrate their commitment to eradicating forced labour and exploitation in their supply chains.⁠”

The Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews urged the European Union to agree on a €5 levy on the import of low-cost packages from outside the EU.

A Garda accused of dangerous driving causing serious injury to a Brazilian delivery man whose leg was severed at the M50 in 2023 has pleaded not guilty, a court has heard.

João Henrique Ferreira (24), who had lived in Ireland for five years, had been assisting friends in locating a stolen bicycle when the incident allegedly occurred on a slip road to the motorway in Tallaght, Dublin.

Following an investigation by Fiosrú, the police ombudsman (formerly Gsoc), criminal proceedings commenced against Garda Neil Doyle of Dundrum station.

He was first summoned to appear at Dublin District Court on May 8th on a charge of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm at Junction 11, north on the M50 on October 28th, 2023.

The court had ordered the prosecution to provide defence solicitor Liz Hughes with disclosure of evidence “as soon as possible” and adjourned the case.

On Thursday, Ms Hughes told Judge Michele Finan that, having received significant disclosure of evidence, she could inform the court that it was a not guilty plea.

The officer was present but remained silent during the proceedings.

The judge noted the defence position and adjourned the case until January 12th for prosecutors to complete and serve a book of evidence on the defendant and to grant a return for trial order.

Mr Ferreira had returned from Brazil for the proceedings on earlier dates but was not required to address the court. He did not have to attend today.

At a previous stage, the judge was told Mr Ferreira “was anxious for the court to hear from him about the seriousness of the injuries” and he was due to undergo further prosthetic surgery over the summer.

When the prosecution first came before the court in May, the defence had sought disclosure of prosecution evidence “as soon as possible” so the garda’s legal team could “consider his position”.