A MAN who blackmailed a former Fianna Fáil councillor using photographs of him allegedly taking cocaine has entered a guilty plea in the middle of his trial.
Wesley Higgins (33) attempted to extort €5,000 from former councillor Liam Kelly by threatening to give such photographs to a newspaper.
Higgins, Dundaniel Road, Kilmore, Coolock, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to demanding money with menaces between August 6th and 12th, 2006.
Midway through the trial, after lengthy legal argument, Higgins changed his plea to guilty before the jury.
He was remanded on continuing bail after the prosecution said there was no objection to him remaining free until sentencing.
Judge Desmond Hogan set a sentencing date for January 27th, before thanking the jurors and dismissing them.
Higgins faces a maximum sentence of 14 years.
Mr Kelly said he had always maintained his innocence and felt “vindicated” by the guilty plea. He said he would not make a further statement until after the sentencing “out of respect for the court”.
The five-day trial was dominated by the lengthy and often heated cross-examination of the former Dublin city councillor.
Mr Kelly repeatedly denied taking cocaine but said he suffered from blackouts due to his alcoholism and could remember little of the night.
Mr Kelly said he represented Finglas-Glasnevin on Dublin City Council from 2004 to when he lost his seat in 2009. He told Tony McGillicuddy, prosecuting, that he knew Higgins “superficially” after meeting him a few times.
In early August 2006, Higgins called him and invited him to a party. He accepted the invitation because he was an alcoholic and “would have gone anywhere for more drink”.
He went to the party with Higgins and an unnamed woman and left in the early hours of the morning.
Mr Kelly said Higgins left a message the next night and told him the woman whom they were with at the party had taken photographs of him and wanted money for them.
The message continued that Higgins was acting as a “middleman” and the woman wanted €5,000 for the photos. Higgins added that he needed to be “looked after” as well.
A later message stated that Higgins was having difficulty stopping the woman going to the newspapers with the photographs. A final message added that the photographs showed the councillor snorting cocaine.
On August 8th, Mr Kelly was on the way to a function in the Mansion House when Sunday Worldreporter Eugene Masterson confronted him on the street and asked him to come to his car to view the photographs allegedly showing him taking cocaine.
He went to the journalist’s car and identified himself in a photograph of him “inhaling a white powdery substance”.
He said it was not cocaine and that he wanted more time to explain. He later went to the Garda and made a complaint alleging blackmail.