The trial of four men accused of abducting and beating Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney will go ahead next month as planned.

The defence teams failed to have it adjourned after raising concerns about the law relating to the retention of and access to mobile phone data.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Tony Hunt didn’t agree with the defence’s claim that the law dealing with how mobile phone data is retained and accessed is in “a state of flux.”

On the contrary, he said it is in fact becoming clear and the court didn’t think there was enough uncertainty around it to justify an adjournment.

As it stands, the Supreme Court is awaiting clarity on a number of issues from Europe before it deals with the State’s appeal of a High Court decision, which ruled in favour of convicted murderer Graham Dwyer in his challenge against how his data was held and subsequently accessed during the Garda investigation in his case.

Mr Justice Hunt explained that it was still up to the national courts to decide on the admissibility of such evidence, while working within the parameters of whatever decisions are made by the higher courts.

In light of today’s ruling, the four men, who are accused of falsely imprisoning and seriously assaulting Kevin Lunney last year, are still due to stand trial on January 12th.

Reporting from Frank Greaney