:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/4UPUZVLPRYNLGIBL3MKR2HAOII.jpg)
A solicitor for a woman who the State claims was murdered by her nephew wrote to the man telling him to stop threatening and intimidating her and interfering with her property in the year before she died, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Michael Scott denies murdering Chrissie Treacy by deliberately running over her in an agricultural teleporter outside her home. His lawyers have said her death was a tragic accident.
Solicitor Brendan Hyland told prosecution counsel Conall MacCarthy BL that he acted for Ms Treacy and her brothers Willie and Michael over a number of decades.
He said that in 2017 Ms Treacy wanted an “enhanced” rent on a 42-acre farm she had been renting to Mr Scott and asked Mr Hyland to help her put the farm on the market.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/P7LXCM552KOEM6GWFDXRHGWXWM.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/QEORERMP5RCF5GUO2ZSQH5LJ4A.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/2BW2KS55JF5ZV5DBSPMNWUM6VE.jpg)
:quality(70):focal(2071x862:2081x872)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZROZAOLALJFV5PARAGWQLYSZOY.jpg)
In an April 11th, 2017 letter to Mr Scott, Mr Hyland noted that damage had been done to the farm and to equipment owned by the new tenant. He said in the letter that Mr Scott had “interfered with the letting of lands” and “sought to intimidate neighbours and potential tenants from taking the land”.
He said Mr Scott had also made threats to interfere with Ms Treacy’s home help and warned that legal action would follow if he failed to “cease making threats and interfering” with his client’s rights.
Mr Hyland said he had concerns that Ms Treacy was vulnerable and that a lot of pressure was being put on her in relation to the land that she owned. He also detailed a dispute in which Mr Scott’s solicitor stated that an agreement had been made whereby Ms Treacy’s land would go to Mr Scott when she died.
Partition
No such agreement had been made, Mr Hyland told the court, and as a result of Mr Scott’s behaviour and attitude towards Ms Treacy, she instructed him to partition the land they jointly owned.
Michael Scott (58), of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co Galway, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Treacy outside her home at Derryhiney, Portumna on April 27th, 2018.
Mr Hyland told the trial that following the deaths of her brothers Willie and Michael, Ms Treacy came to own a 42-acre farm at Kiltormer and half of a 140-acre farm around her home at Derryhiney. The other half of the Derryhiney farm was owned by Mr Scott.
They were, he said, joint owners and “tenants in common” meaning that the farm was not partitioned and neither one owned specific lots or fields, but “every blade of grass was held at 50 per cent each”.
In 2017, Ms Treacy came to Mr Hyland’s offices with her friend and neighbour Regina Donohue and an agricultural auctioneer named Declan McHugh. Ms Treacy was at that time renting her lands at Kiltormer to the accused and his brother, Tom Scott.
She wanted to engage Mr McHugh to put the land on the market because she was “anxious to get a greater or enhanced rent”, Mr Hyland said.
Further damage
On April 27th, 2017, Mr Hyland sent a further letter to Tom and Michael Scott calling on them to “immediately cease interfering with Ms Treacy’s land and stop damaging the fence”. The letter stated that further damage had been done to electric fencing at Kiltormer and that lead had been left exposed creating a danger to animals on the land.
On the same date, Mr Hyland sent a letter to gardaí setting out concerns for Ms Treacy’s safety. Around this time Ms Treacy also instructed Mr Hyland to draw up a new will in which she appointed Ms Donohue as her executor and left “everything to her”.
On April 28th, Mr Hyland received a phone call from Michael Scott. “He was extremely angry and abusive on the phone to me and I couldn’t speak because he was in such a rage, he didn’t give me a chance to respond,” the solicitor said.
“He accused me of giving wrong instructions and that he had nothing to do with this and he wasn’t involved in the matters that were the subject of the letter.”
Mr Hyland said he was “shocked at the utter vehemence of his anger”. He said Mr Scott phoned back about 45 minutes later with a “completely different tone” and apologised for hanging up on the previous call.
Mr Hyland told Mr Scott he should get his solicitor to respond if he had a difficulty with what was in the letter.
Mr Scott also made a complaint about Mr McHugh, accusing him of “interfering” and “trying to cause trouble”.
No complaint made
In August 2017, gardaí told Mr Hyland that they were aware of the difficulties between Ms Treacy and Michael Scott but because a formal complaint had not been made, they could not progress the matter.
In November 2017, Ms Treacy called Mr Hyland saying Michael Scott’s lease on her half of the land at Derryhiney had expired and she wanted to “regularise matters”. She said her nephew was “anxious for a new lease” and if he could not get the lease it would create difficulties for him and his dairy business. Ms Treacy seemed “very upset”, Mr Hyland said.
Mr Hyland asked Declan McHugh to value the land because Mr Hyland felt there was a “gross undervalue” in what was being paid. A short time later, Mr Hyland received a call from Ms Treacy’s phone but when he took up the call Michael Scott was on the other end.
“That surprised me,” he said. “The only thing I could presume was he was in her kitchen.”
He added: “I was very concerned about her, that a lot of pressure was being put on her. I knew her, she was a very kind lady and quiet, an inoffensive person, living on her own and she was very vulnerable.”
Mr Scott told Mr Hyland that he wanted a lease in his wife’s name and that the terms would be the same as before which, the accused said, was €6,000 per year.
On December 6th that year, Ms Treacy called Mr Hyland. She was very upset, seemed “disorientated” and “under enormous stress”. He told her he would call to her home as he felt “she was completely vulnerable and a lot of pressure was being put on her”.
Mr Hyland later discovered that her confusion and upset was caused by a letter from Michael Scott’s solicitor which contained a new six-year lease on the land at a rate of €6,000 per year and requested Ms Treacy to sign the lease in the presence of her solicitor.
On December 8th, Declan McHugh told Mr Hyland that he valued the lease for Ms Treacy’s half of the land at Derryhiney at €13,000 per year. Mr Hyland wrote to Mr Scott’s solicitor saying that Ms Treacy now wanted to partition the land at Derryhiney and stating that Ms Treacy had been subjected to threats and intimidation from Mr Scott.
Mr Hyland called on Mr Scott to “cease such threats and intimidation forthwith and to cease phoning this office”.
One week later Mr Scott’s solicitor wrote back saying that his client would not agree to the partition but he would offer an increased rent of €8,000 per year for Ms Treacy’s half of the land. The letter added that Mr Scott “does not understand the suggestion of threats and intimidation on his part.
“It seems our mutual clients have been getting on quite well for several years now and hopefully that will continue,” the letter said.
Ongoing difficulties
On January 5th, 2018, Ms Treacy spoke to Mr Hyland and again concerns were expressed regarding the ongoing difficulties between her and Mr Scott over the land. On January 24th, Mr Hyland received a letter from a new solicitor acting for Mr Scott suggesting a division of the land and a 10-year rental agreement for Mr Scott at current market rates with an option to review the rate over the 10 years.
The new solicitor wrote that it had been agreed that Ms Treacy would enter a new arrangement whereby she would have the use of her portion of the land for life and thereafter it would transfer to Mr Scott.
Under such an arrangement, Mr Hyland said Ms Treacy would have the use of her land but would not have full legal ownership of it. She would not be able to sell or give away her portion or leave it to someone else in her will.
Ms Treacy told Mr Hyland that she had not and would “under no circumstances” enter into any such agreement.
Mr Hyland responded to the letter saying that no such agreement had been made.
“Due to difficulties caused by your client’s behaviour and attitude towards my client, my client has instructed me to send papers to counsel to draft partition proceedings.”
He further asked the solicitor to “request your client to cease threatening or intimidating our client in relation to her own affairs”.
Mr Hyland’s evidence will continue on Wednesday before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and eight women.