Friday, May 31, 2019
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Solicitor Gerald Kean has told a High Court jury he was “shell-shocked” by a front page newspaper article concerning a visit by members of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) to his Dublin office three years ago.
Mr Kean has sued for defamation alleging, among various claims, the March 11, 2016, article in the Irish Daily Star, labelled "Exclusive" and headlined "Kean caught up in CAB probe", wrongly and maliciously linked him to gangland crime and to the Kinahan crime gang.
The jury heard the sub-headline on the front page article said: "Gardai call to office of 'celebrity solicitor' for file" and the story also stated: "Sources said officers were looking for paperwork relating to the sale or purchase of a house linked to the Kinahan gang."
The story ran for another two pages inside the newspaper, saying, among other things, that, "as part of their probe into the Kinahan cartel, gardai obtained judicial permission to search 12 homes and seven businesses, including Mr Kean's office".
It also said "it is understood Mr Kean fully co-operated with the gardai who called to his office".
Mr Kean has sued Independent Star Ltd over the article, published a day after two CAB officers called to his premises at Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin. The defence denies defamation and denies the article means what Mr Kean alleges.
In evidence on Tuesday, Mr Kean said there was no “raid” or “search” of his premises by CAB members on March 10, 2016.
He said his office represents several gardai, including CAB members, and, when two members of CAB called to his office that day, he assumed they might be potential new clients.
He said, following a “lovely” conversation with the two about a range of matters including his late father, who was a Garda, they asked him for any documents concerning a house purchase by a Dublin man, Sean McGovern.
Mr McGovern was described in the newspaper article as aged in his thirties and a business partner of Liam Byrne, who was shot and wounded during an incident at Dublin's Regency Hotel when David Byrne was shot dead.
The article said the homes of Mr McGovern and of Liam Byrne were raided earlier the same day, March 10.
The article also said gardai took away documents from Mr Kean's office concerning the sale or purchase of a property at Kildare Road, Crumlin.
Mr Kean said he was unaware himself of the house purchase matter but another solicitor in his office told him she had acted in that matter and procured the relevant documents for the CAB officers.
Because the officers had a warrant, that meant, despite confidentiality obligations as a solicitor, the documents must be provided, he said.
At his Co Wicklow home that night, he was watching a football match when he was contacted several times by phone by journalists with the Star.
He may have used an "expletive" when he "very abruptly", in reply to a specific question from a journalist, said there was no "raid" on his office and had not answered further calls and texts.
He was "shell-shocked" and "absolutely devastated" when, while later watching an item about the following day's newspapers headlines on the Virgin Media Tonight show, he learned the CAB visit was the subject of a front page article in the Irish Daily Star.
Because he knew he would be unable to sleep, he drove to Dublin in the early hours seeking a copy of the newspaper. When he read the full article, he was horrified and went to the office of another solicitor about it.
He was very concerned how people, particularly his daughter, but also various charities and businesses with whom he is involved, would react to the article and whether they would believe he had no involvement in relation to the matters CAB was investigating.
"I was genuinely very upset and very hurt and I really feared how I would recover from this," he said.
Earlier, outlining the case for Mr Kean, Jim O'Callaghan SC, urged the jury to award "very significant" damages, including aggravated damages, due to the "viciousness" of this "defamatory attack".
He said the jury may be aware of a very serious murder at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016, as that was the most prominent factor leading to a "murderous" feud between the Hutch and Kinahan criminal gangs.
The article referred to CAB getting permission to search 12 homes and seven businesses but the only business named was Mr Kean's and only it got this "extraordinary" treatment in the newspaper, he said.
The newspaper was linking all of the CAB searches together and putting Mr Kean in same category as those subject of the CAB investigation which is "totally incorrect and unfair" to him, he said.
The case continues before Mr Justice Bernard Barton and a jury.
Friday, March 8, 2019
PADDYWANTSTOKNOW?: "ENCOURAGECHANGE"paddoconnell8@gmail.com: Welcome ...
PADDYWANTSTOKNOW?: "ENCOURAGECHANGE"paddoconnell8@gmail.com: Welcome ...: http://encouragechange.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-to-my-website-ireland-ahern.html : "A report by the Council of Europe’s anti-corrup...
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
EncourageChange - @paddoconnell Twitter Profile | Twipu
EncourageChange - @paddoconnell Twitter Profile | Twipu: Explore @paddoconnell Twitter Profile public inquiry | Twipu
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
PADDYWANTSTOKNOW?: "ENCOURAGECHANGE"paddoconnell8@gmail.com: Welcome ...
PADDYWANTSTOKNOW?: "ENCOURAGECHANGE"paddoconnell8@gmail.com: Welcome ...: http://encouragechange.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-to-my-website-ireland-ahern.html : "A report by the Council of Europe’s anti-corrup...
State operates under a veil of secrecy
State operates under a veil of secrecy: Minister for Finance Michael Noonan kept batting away requests for the truth on the IBRC/Siteserv deal for more than six months through the course of 19 parliamentary questions.
'Damaging to the very fabric of our society': Higgins criticises Ireland's unequal justice system
Higgins was speaking at the opening of Flac’s new Dublin office.
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has said that Ireland should not be satisfied with its current system of justice which is dependent on the ability to pay for it.
Speaking at the official opening of Free Legal Advice Centres’ (Flac) new office in Dublin, Higgins said that effective access to justice is a basic human right arguing that access to legal aid is a crucial requirement of that.
“A nation that aspires towards true equality, could not be satisfied with a system of justice that is reliant on the earning power of those who seek to access it, or accept a situation where those who cannot afford to pay for justice can be more easily deprived of their liberty, or for a view that a fair trial is a commodity is a right limited to one’s capacity to purchase it,” he said.
There can be no doubt that those who are most vulnerable and marginalised in our society are also those citizens who are most at risk of encountering legal difficulties and most in need of a justice system that is accessible and that operates in the best interests of all.
Flac was established in 1969 by four students who wanted to use their skills and knowledge to provide legal advice to those who could not afford to pay for it – an organisation Higgins says has contributed “so much to the achievement of a rights-based legal system in Ireland”.
Speaking at the opening of Flac’s new office, the first in a series of events to mark its 50th anniversary, Flac’s chief executive, Eilis Barry, said that five decades later, justice continues to be unattainable for some groups in society.
“We are proud of the work that FLAC and its squad of volunteers have done for the last 50 years in seeking to establish a comprehensive system of civil legal aid. However, Flac and its volunteers cannot begin to meet the current legal need it encounters on a daily basis.”
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Last year Flac dealt with over 25,000 requests for legal information and advice to its telephone information line and advice clinics.
It recently urged the government to make free legal aid available in proceedings involving the repossession of a home.
“It is simply not acceptable, in a state that claims to be a democracy, that the most vulnerable section of our society is unable to access our legal system or is prevented from doing so in a timely manner. That is a situation which damages the very fabric of our society, entrenching and exacerbating inequality,” Higgins said.
The homeless, the poor, those with a disability or who suffer from mental illness, immigrants, lone parents and those living or growing up in disadvantaged communities encounter many more legal problems than the rest of our population.
Higgins added that when vulnerable citizens are abandoned to navigate a complex legal system alone, they are experiencing a grave injustice.
“It is, indeed, worrying to know that figures released last year by the Irish Penal Reform Trust to the Oireachtas Education Committee showed that the majority of those currently in Irish prisons have never sat a State exam, with over half having left school before the age of 15.
“It is also revealing that prisoners in Ireland are 25 times more likely to come from deprived communities, indicating a very clear link between social disadvantage and crime and punishment,” he said.
FLAC’s new premises on Upper Dorset Street has a special historical significance as the playwright Sean O’Casey was born on the original site in 1880.
O’Casey’s daughter, Shivaun, was in attendance today for the opening.
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