Lowry involved in deal, court told

A document read to the High Court yesterday stated that an English businessman, whose wife's family trust sold shares in Doncaster Rovers football club, had indicated to the Moriarty tribunal that former minister Michael Lowry was involved in the Doncaster club deal with businessman Denis O'Brien and two other men.

Those two other men were named by the businessman, Ken Richardson, as Kevin Phelan, a businessman from Omagh, Co Tyrone, and Denis O'Connor, Mr Lowry's accountant.

The document also stated Mr Richardson had said he had videos of conversations involving English solicitor Christopher Vaughan and Kevin Phelan which, Mr Richardson said, recorded those two men stating money had been given to Mr Lowry.

The document, a solicitor's attendance record of a meeting at Dublin Castle on December 9th, 2003 where Mr Richardson, and another man, Mark Weaver had arrived unannounced, was read in the continuing challenge by Mr O'Brien to the tribunal's decision to proceed to public hearings into the Doncaster purchase and the "purported connection" of Mr Lowry to that transaction.

Both Mr Lowry and Mr O'Brien have denied Mr Lowry had any involvement in the Doncaster deal.

Mr O'Brien has claimed Mr Richardson and Mr Weaver were involved in attempts to blackmail his father, Denis O'Brien senior

In proceedings before Mr Justice Henry Abbott, Mr O'Brien is seeking an order overturning the tribunal's decision of May 27th, 2004 to move to public hearings on Doncaster.

The Doncaster club was bought for £4 million sterling in August 1998 by Westferry Limited, a company controlled by the Wellington Trust set up by Mr O'Brien .

Mr O'Brien has claimed there was no evidence to support the tribunals' decision to move to public hearings and that the decision is in breach of his constitutional rights and fair procedures.

The tribunal denies those claims and has argued it accumulated adequate evidence in its private investigative stage to move to public hearings.

In submissions yesterday for Mr O'Brien, Eoin McGonigal SC said the tribunal decided to move to public hearings mainly on the basis of a "highly questionable" letter allegedly written by Mr Vaughan on September 25th, 1998 to Mr Lowry.

If the facts in the letter could not be relied upon, it was difficult to see how the tribunal could rely on any part of it, he added.The hearing continues today.