Former assistant Dublin city and county manager, George Redmond (79), has had his sentencing on two counts of corruption deferred at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Redmond was found guilty on November 19th of receiving £10,000 from garage owner Mr Brendan Fassnidge as a bribe relating to the sale of a right-of-way from Dublin County Council at the Lucan bypass.
He has been in custody in Cloverhill Prison since his conviction and faces a possible seven-year jail sentence.
At the sentence hearing this morning, the court heard submissions from Redmond's lawyer on his client's medical condition, on alleged adverse media publicity and on the legal precedent for sentencing in similar cases. Judge Michael White said he would hand down his sentence on Friday morning next.
Mr Patrick J McCarthy, for the prosecution, noted that under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1916, any public servant found guilty of receiving money, gifts or other inducements in a situation where a "contract" was agreed upon was liable to a maximum prison sentence of seven years, with the minimum being three. Mr McCarthy said in this case, it was proven that such a contract had been engaged in by Redmond.
However, Mr Brendan Grehan, SC for Redmond, argued that while it was undeniable that Redmond had betrayed the public trust, the actual material damage to the public caused by his crimes was minimal. He said Redmond "has fallen from a great height" and, by his own admission on the day of his arrest in Dublin Airport in 1999, his life "had ceased to exist - it was shattered."
Mr Grehan said because of "adverse" media coverage, Redmond and his family were now in the "full glare of publicity" and he would "forever be a pariah in the community." He had lost all respect from friends, family and former colleagues.
"The image of George Redmond being brought from court in handcuffs ... will be forever the iconic image of corruption in Ireland, and he and his family now have to live with that," Mr Grehan added.
Mr Grehan told the court his client had a heart bypass operation in 2002, had a brain-stem stroke in 1992 and has arthritis in his right knee. He also has recurrent heartburn, prostate problems, is partially deaf and is on medication for his heart condition.
However, Mr Grehan conceded that although now 79 years old and frail, Redmond was remarkably healthy for his age and had lived well beyond the national average.
In applying for leniency, Mr Grehan said his client's age in itself was not enough of a mitigating factor, but "where a person is of advanced age, there is an element of inhumanity in consigning him to a lengthy period in prison." The only people jailed at Redmond's age were those convicted of "vile" sexual offences, murder and war crimes, he said.
The court heard that since his arrest in Dublin Airport in 1999, when he was found with a suitcase containing £300,000 in cash, Redmond had been convicted on ten counts of failing to make tax returns, made a settlement of £782,000 with the Revenue and had to sell the family home. He and his wife, who have two adult children, now live in Castleknock on his pension of €53,000.
Redmond had denied that while an agent or servant of the Council of the County of Dublin, a public body, he corruptly received a gift of money on a date between June 1st, 1987, and May 31st, 1988, as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do anything in respect of the sale of a right-of-way at Palmerstown, by the Council of the County of Dublin.
He also denied that as an agent he corruptly accepted for himself a gift of money as an inducement or reward for showing favour to another in relation to the said principal's affairs, namely the sale of the right-of-way.
