Former assistant Dublin city and county manager Mr George Redmond was freed by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday after it overturned as "unsafe and unsatisfactory" his conviction on two counts of corruption.
As Mr Redmond would be due for release next month in any event, the court also said it would be wrong to order a retrial.
The three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal said new evidence showed that a crucial part of the evidence of garage owner Mr Brendan Fassnidge at Mr Redmond's trial was "simply wrong". Had this new evidence, relating to bank records of Mr Fassnidge, been available to the defence at the trial, it would assuredly have thrown a very grave doubt over Mr Fassnidge's evidence as a whole, it said.
Shortly after yesterday's decision, Mr Redmond (80), who was not in court when judgment was handed down, told The Irish Times that his period of some nine months in prison had been "an extraordinary" experience. "It's one from which I think I will benefit," he said. "I hope I'm a better man for serving my time." He added that he had "nothing but the highest of praise" for the prison staff and governor.
Ms Justice McGuinness, presiding and sitting with Mr Justice O'Donovan and Mr Justice de Valera, said the trial judge in his charge to the jury had drawn attention to some of the difficulties of Mr Fassnidge's evidence. Had the new evidence before the appeal court been available, there was no doubt that the trial judge would have drawn it to the attention of the jury, she said.
Counsel for Mr Redmond had submitted that had this evidence been available at trial, the defence would have been in a position to make a strong application for a direction (to have the charges dismissed). The appeal court agreed that in the circumstances, such an application could well have been successful, Ms Justice McGuinness said.
Leaving aside the question of a direction, it was the court's view that had the evidence of the bank records been available to the jury, there was "at the very least a strong possibility" that the evidence would have raised a reasonable doubt in their minds as to the guilt of Mr Redmond. The court therefore considered the conviction "unsafe and unsatisfactory" and would quash the conviction on both charges.
Mr Redmond was serving a 12- month sentence imposed on December 19th, with effect from November 19th, 2003. Irrespective of yesterday's decision, he was due for release with remission on August 19th. As Mr Redmond had served virtually the whole of his sentence, it would be wrong to order a retrial.
Mr Redmond was not in court for yesterday's decision, apparently having been delayed coming from a cell in a building at the Four Courts. He arrived outside the courtroom some minutes after the judgment had been delivered and had talks with his lawyers before adjourning with them to the court restaurant.
Mr Redmond's appeal was heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal earlier this month, with the main thrust centring on new evidence relating to the bank records of Mr Fassnidge at Bank of Ireland, Blanchardstown, Dublin, in the late 1980s.
Both counts on which Mr Redmond was convicted arose from the same incident in which it was alleged that Mr Fassnidge gave him £10,000 in cash by way of a bribe in or about March 1988 in return for assistance in the purchase of a right of way from Dublin County Council.
The appeal court permitted Mr Redmond to call new evidence relating to Mr Fassnidge's bank accounts in the late 1980s.
Solicitor Ms Clara O'Callaghan said the records did not appear to support Mr Fassnidge's allegation against Mr Redmond.
Mr Padraic Brennan, manager, Bank of Ireland, Blanchardstown, had produced copies of Mr Fassnidge's bank accounts for periods in the late 1980s. None of the cheques displayed in the records related to Mr Redmond, he said.
Ms Justice McGuinness said copies of those records had already been examined by Mr Redmond's counsel and the DPP and it was accepted there was no record of Mr Fassnidge having withdrawn £10,000 in cash from his account during the material period. The only cash withdrawals made by Mr Fassnidge had been of minor sums of £100-200 through the bank's ATM machines.
Mr Brennan's evidence was unchallenged.
Mr Brendan Grehan SC, for Mr Redmond, argued that the credibility of Mr Fassnidge was crucial to the prosecution case and he was the "core" witness at the trial. He seemed confused about many matters and contradicted himself on several occasions, Mr Grehan argued.
Counsel for the DPP had argued that the evidence at the trial was not substantively changed by the fact that the bank records did not show the relevant cash transaction. At the trial, the jury had evidence from Mr Fassnidge and a garda that there was no available record to corroborate Mr Fassnidge's evidence.
Ms Justice McGuinness said there was no issue in regard to the accuracy of the evidence of the bank records produced to the Court of Criminal Appeal by Mr Brennan. Those records established conclusively that Mr Fassnidge did not withdraw £10,000 in cash from his account at Bank of Ireland, Blanchardstown, in March or April 1988. Mr Fassnidge's evidence that he did so could not, therefore, be relied upon.
The appeal court had considered the oral and documentary evidence before the jury. Leaving aside the evidence of Mr Fassnidge himself, it would be fair to say that "an unattractive picture" emerged of the events which led to the grant of the right of way to Mr Fassnidge from the council, the judge said.
It was fully established in evidence that Mr Fassnidge made an open and legal payment of £10,000 by cheque to the council regarding the right of way, she added. Mr Fassnidge had, incidentally, refused to admit this fact until the fourth day of the trial "when he experienced a somewhat unlikely recovery of his memory of the event". Mr Redmond, in a statement of April 1st, 1999, had admitted he had received £5,000 in cash from Mr Fassnidge in connection with the acquisition of the right of way, although he claimed this was an unsolicited payment.
On the general evidence, the jury could well have concluded that neither Mr Redmond nor Mr Fassnidge were persons of any great merit and there were a number of highly questionable aspects to the transaction regarding the right of way, she said. However, Mr Redmond was charged with very specific offences and these had to be proved beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution.
The judge said it must be accepted that the full extent of these matters was established, if established at all, through the evidence of Mr Fassnidge. His was the core evidence.
Ms Justice McGuinness said the striking feature of Mr Fassnidge's evidence was that it was largely self-contradictory in its general terms and in detail, with the sole exception of a central allegation that on a particular day shortly before April 7th, 1988, he went to Bank of Ireland in Blanchardstown and withdrew £10,000 in cash which he placed in a brown envelope and later at his home gave to Mr Redmond.
Much of the detail of Mr Fassnidge's evidence was contradicted by other witnesses or by the documentary evidence before the court.
This was put to him in a lengthy and detailed cross-examination and his answers were often dismissive. However, he clung to his central allegation and had nine times during his evidence stated he went to the Bank of Ireland in Blanchardstown, withdrew £10,000 in cash, put that sum in a brown envelope and gave it in his home that day to Mr Redmond.
Mr Fassnidge gave inconsistent evidence about the size of the envelope, what pocket he carried it in, where in his home he put it and where in the house his wife was when he handed it over to Mr Redmond. However, he never wavered in his evidence that he had gone to his bank that morning and withdrawn the money in cash. He firmly stuck to his guns that he withdrew the cash from Blanchardstown Bank of Ireland.
