MS ROCCA'S doctor told the High Court he met Mr Ryan twice the year before the alleged assault and tried to broker a reconciliation between them.
Dr Stephen Murphy said he first met Mr Ryan in his Dublin clinic in 1991. A second meeting was to have followed in a public house but they never met as there was confusion over which pub they had arranged to meet in.
A second meeting did take place in the Royal St George Club in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, during the summer of 1991. Dr Murphy said he had agreed to meet him in the yacht club because Mr Ryan said he would feel more comfortable in an informal setting.
Mr Cooney SC, for Mr Ryan, asked if Dr Murphy had arranged to meet Mr Ryan to discuss Claudia, Ms Rocca and Mr Ryan's child, as it took place after her birth.
Dr Murphy said they had wide-ranging discussions and he was probably exploring the possibility of a reconciliation between Mr Ryan and Ms Rocca. The meeting had taken place in the summer of 1991 and Mr Ryan and Ms Rocca had parted and were no longer living in the same house. Dr Murphy said he believed Mr Ryan wanted to continue the discussions.
Mr Cooney, however, put it to Dr Murphy that there was no possibility of a reconciliation between Mr Ryan and Ms Rocca. Mr Ryan was not going back to Ms Rocca, nor did he intend forming any kind of relationship with her and that he told Dr Murphy that more than once.
Counsel further put it to Dr Murphy that he was trying to act as a broker for Ms Rocca. Dr Murphy said he already said that he had initiated the meetings with Mr Ryan but then admitted that maybe he did act as broker for Ms Rocca.
Dr Murphy was also questioned about his meeting with Mr David Marshall, during which Mr Marshall was alleged to have told him that he saw the alleged incident involving Ms Rocca and Mr Ryan.
Mr Cooney said one thing that worried him was that Mr Marshall, his wife and children were patients of Dr Murphy for about two years and that Dr Murphy was in breach of medical ethics in divulging a doctor/patient relationship.
Mr Nicholas Kearns SC, for Ms Rocca, interjected to say that Dr Murphy had been told socially by Mr Marshall at Riverview Tennis Club in Dublin. Their meeting was not in the context of a doctor/patient relationship.
Mr Cooney put it to Dr Murphy that it was a disgraceful breach of proper medical ethics for him to divulge a conversation between him and a patient to a solicitor acting for one of the parties involved in the litigation.
Dr Murphy: I know quite a few of my patients socially and I don't see any difficulty having a social conversation with a patient.
Mr Cooney said Mr Marshall had been asked over lunchtime yesterday about this and he said he never met Dr Murphy socially, only as a patient.
Mr Cooney: Do you agree or disagree?
Dr Murphy: I disagree.
Mr Cooney said Mr Marshall visited Dr Murphy in his surgery in March 1992.
Dr Murphy: He may well have done.
Mr Justice Moriarty asked Dr Murphy to produce his surgery records when the case resumed next week.
Mr Cooney asked Dr Murphy if he advised Ms Rocca to contact the Garda when he was called to her house the day after the alleged assault. Dr Murphy said Ms Rocca was under considerable pressure from her family to call the Garda. He thought at the time it would be better for Ms Rocca to have a solicitor if she decided to contact the Garda. He did not advise Ms Rocca about calling the Garda.
Was it not extraordinary, said Mr Cooney, that he did not tell Ms Rocca about what Mr Marshall had told him three months after the alleged assault and had waited until just two days ago to tell her legal team. Dr Murphy said he did not think it was relevant at the time as he understood Ms Rocca was not going to initiate proceedings against Mr Ryan.