BACKGROUND:A fight on an estate started a chain of events that would see a minister of state resign, writes CARL O'BRIEN, Chief Reporter
IT STARTED with a row. Dominic McGowan (37) was on his way home from work to his apartment in Cardy Rock estate in Balbriggan when he saw two local children trying to remove a street sign.
“When I asked them what they were doing, they said nothing, and so I said ‘your parents wouldn’t like to know you were off doing nothing’,” McGowan says.
“They responded, ‘our parents wouldn’t f***in’ care’. I said we’ll see about that. I called their bluff. I wish I hadn’t.”
McGowan confronted one of the parents. A blazing row ensued. Stephen Mulvany (35), assaulted McGowan, an assault Sargent described as a headbutt.
“He knocked me back for six. Broke my nose. Busted my nose open. Blood everywhere,” McGowan said on Tuesday night.
Gardaí were called following the assault and a criminal investigation began, while McGowan ended up receiving treatment in hospital for his injuries.
The following year Mulvany was charged with assaulting McGowan and was later sentenced to four months in prison (he has an appeal currently before the courts).
To his astonishment, McGowan was also charged with threatening and abusive behaviour.
Angered by the Garda’s handling of the case, he says he contacted two TDs about it.
Only one responded: Green Party TD Trevor Sargent. He said he would do everything in his power to have the matter dropped.
Sargent’s representations to the Garda over the following weeks and months would ultimately set in train a sequence of events which would lead to his resignation, destabilising the Government and sparking an inquiry into how the letters were leaked to the media.
IT WAS on Friday June 6th, 2008, when Dominic McGowan and his wife made an appointment to see Trevor Sargent at Balbriggan town hall.
McGowan – an employee in a car rental firm – is not a member of the Green Party. He told Sargent about the incident and how he feared for his safety in an upcoming case at the District Court.
He was furious at the Garda’s handling of the case. He also had concerns about the number of witnesses interviewed.
Sargent responded promptly. The following Monday he wrote to a garda involved at Balbriggan Garda station using State-headed paper to say McGowan was a “civic-minded person who had never been in trouble with the law” and felt it was “wholly inappropriate” to prosecute his constituent.
He wrote: “It was shocking for me to hear . . . of the assault he suffered and rather than him being called to court to give evidence against his attacker, he has received a letter charging him with threatening behaviour . . .”
The case came to court on June 26th, 2008, and following a number of appearances where it came up for mention, it was eventually heard several months later, according to legal sources.
Mulvany, who admits to having previous convictions (including an assault in 2003 with a one-month sentence which was suspended on appeal), was sentenced to four months in prison. He was also convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour.
McGowan, for his part, was also convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour and was fined €500 in relation to the same incident.
Mulvany has made an appeal and the case was due to be heard at a Circuit Court hearing at the Criminal Court of Justice building just over a week ago, on Friday, February 19th.
Again, Trevor Sargent made representations to the Garda on behalf of McGowan just days before the hearing.
This letter to Supt Joe Kelly of Balbriggan Garda station on February 15th, 2010, states: “I refer to our previous correspondence regarding Mr McGowan. I would be grateful if you could keep an eye on this case as I fear for the safety of Mr McGowan who faces his attacker in court again in the Central Criminal Court this Friday . . . as a witness to his own attack in September 2007.”
Mulvany was quoted in the Evening Herald yesterday as saying McGowan’s concern for his safety was baseless.
“He said he was concerned for his life, it’s rubbish,” he was reported as saying.
Sargent said yesterday Supt Kelly gave him “a flea in the ear” for sending the letter and he pursued the matter no further.
SHORTLY AFTER the story of the correspondence broke in Tuesday’s Evening Herald, it became clear that Sargent’s ministerial career was coming to an abrupt end.
Under section six of the Prosecutions of Offences Act 1974, his letters to the Garda about the case were more than likely unlawful. In the end, the Green Party TD acted quickly.
He tendered his resignation as minister of state for food and horticulture within hours of the story breaking, accepting that he made an “error of judgment”.
The focus moved swiftly to who leaked the correspondence to the media in the first place.
Opposition parties were quick to point the finger at Fianna Fáil, exacting revenge for Willie O’Dea’s resignation the previous week. The Green Party leadership declined to comment as speculation mounted.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s comment that the allegations were “beneath contempt” did little to dampen the flames.
But over the past 24 hours, the finger of suspicion is beginning to point away from the political arena.
For one, the Department of Justice did not have access to the correspondence, according to Seán Aylward, the department’s secretary general.
Crime reporter Paul Williams – known for his contacts within the Garda – says he was contacted by a source regarding the story last week and the individual was not linked to Fianna Fáil.
If the correspondence forms part of the Garda file on the incident, it is likely to have been accessible to a wide variety of people: investigating gardaí, senior members of the Garda, the Director of Public Prosecutions, legal representatives, the list goes on.
There may also be a more simple explanation proffered by Trevor Sargent: that the records were simply mislaid at the most recent court sitting on February 19th and found their way into the hands of the media.
“It’s quite conceivable that a document would be seen that wasn’t intended for the person seeing it,” Sargent told Newstalk radio yesterday. “That’s a scenario that has nothing to do with conspiracies; it’s just an accident of life.”
AT CARDY Rock housing estate, on the outskirts of Balbriggan, residents’ concerns are grounded in everyday issues like anti-social behaviour rather than potentially unlawful actions, political intrigue or conspiracy theories.
“We’ve ongoing issues with vandalism,” says Garret Mullan of the Cardy Rock residents’ association. “There’s little or no green space for children to play, so younger and older kids congregate in the centre of the estate.”
The entrance to one of the apartment blocks has been smashed in three times in the past year, he says, which led to the management company’s insurance premium doubling in price. Other locals say a mother with children was forced to move out of the estate recently due to threatening behaviour.
“It’s not all bad by any means – people turn up in decent numbers for residents’ meetings, estate clean-ups. We had a meet your neighbour afternoon recently . . . but we need to address issues like recreational facilities and anti-social behaviour, but no one seems interested.”