LIMERICK secondary school, Salesian College, has withdrawn legal action that was in place to identify who was behind an Instagram account which has since closed down.
The account had been making negative remarks towards a number of students and staff members within the school using “Coarse and vulgar” comments.
On Monday, the high court was informed by David Geoghegan BL, for the limerick secondary school, the Board of management had decided against the continuing of proceedings that they had initially had in place to attempt to identify the person responsible for the account.
The school board’s decision to withdraw is due to their own reasons, not moving any further with their prosecution. Facebook who own Instagram were informed of the withdrawal earlier this week, following last month’s ruling by Mr Justice Garrett Simons to refer numerous questions in relation to the case to the European Court of Justice.
The account that had up to 52 posts that included such controversial comments which included images that were not of anyone within the school, staff members or students.
However, the captions implemented on such posts were linked with several individuals working or studying in the Limerick school.
The comments included reference to many members of the secondary school with remarks made in relation to weight, sexuality and other personal appearances.
The school looked to identify the person or people behind the account after gaining access to the account itself following information regarding the accounts password that had been revealed by another student.
Following the decision not to further prosecute , last month’s decision to refer to the ECJ has now been dropped. Mr Justice Simons said following the situation where Facebook had agreed to pay its own costs, the order was made to strike out any further proceedings leading the case to an end and ultimately closed.
The judge was ready to hear questions from the parties he wished to refer to the ECJ on Monday for a preliminary ruling. However, following the board of management’s decision , that will no longer be required.
