Judge believed on balance of probabilities that Fianna Fail's Noel O'Flynn had uttered the words complained and had branded McCarthy a thief, writes Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent.
A retired garda was yesterday awarded €12,700 in damages for what a judge said was a "frightful slander" made against him by a Fianna Fáil TD.
Jerry McCarthy (66), of Monacnappa, Blarney, Co Cork, had sued Mr Noel O'Flynn over comments he claimed the TD made to RTÉ's Prime Time reporter, Brendan O'Brien, on February 8th, 2001, during an inquiry into allegations of Garda corruption.
Mr McCarthy claimed Mr O'Flynn, of Melvindale House, Coolowen, Blarney, Co Cork, said he had been discharged because of alcoholism and stealing from the force.
Mr O'Flynn, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central, denied he had made the claims about Mr McCarthy. But Judge Patrick Moran told Cork Circuit Court he believed, on the balance of probability, that Mr O'Flynn had uttered the words complained of. He awarded Mr McCarthy €12,700 in damages plus costs.
The judge said Mr McCarthy was "branded a thief" by Mr O'Flynn's comments. "To be called a thief in his retirement is not a nice thing . . . there was a frightful slander uttered about this man," he said.
Mr O'Brien told the court that as part of his research into allegations about Garda activity in Cork, he arranged to meet Mr McCarthy for an off-the-record briefing at the Northside Community Enterprise Centre in Blackpool.
He wanted to inquire about the circumstances of the retirement of another garda, Jack Doyle.
Mr O'Brien said he met Mr McCarthy at the centre on February 8th, 2001, and he was the only garda or ex-garda he met there that day. He returned to his hotel and received an unsolicited call from Mr O'Flynn who identified himself.
"He said that he just wanted to tip me off about the two gardaí that I was dealing with. He said that one had been forced to retire from the force because of mental instability and the second was forced to retire because of alcoholism and stealing from the force," he said.
Mr O'Brien took the reference to the first garda to mean Mr Doyle, whom he understood left the force on the grounds of mental infirmity, while he interpreted the second as a reference to Mr McCarthy. At no stage during this conversation did Mr O'Flynn name Mr McCarthy, said Mr O'Brien.
Mr O'Brien said he put the claims to both men to establish their credibility. If the allegation about Mr McCarthy were true, it would have undermined his credibility and Prime Time would not have used him to give character evidence for Mr Doyle, who was making allegations about some gardaí in Cork.
Mr O'Brien said he received a second phone call from Mr O'Flynn in which he said Mr McCarthy had got a solicitor involved and he asked him (Mr O'Brien) to "pull out of the previous conversation".
He understood this to mean that Mr O'Flynn wanted him to deny or forget the conversation had ever taken placed, but he refused. Cross-examined by Mr O'Flynn's barrister, Mr Jim Duggan, Mr O'Brien strongly denied he had ever agreed with Mr O'Flynn that the conversation was off the record and confidential.
If he had agreed, he would have marked that on his notes with the letters OTR and there was no such mark on his notes, which he said were contemporaneous records.
Mr O'Flynn denied he had made any such comments about either Mr McCarthy or Mr Doyle but said he had contacted Mr O'Brien after receiving several phone calls from one of his political supporters, Mr Mick Lane, that Mr McCarthy had contacted him (Mr Lane) to ask him (Mr O'Flynn) to make a statement about the planned Prime Time programme. He had contacted Mr O'Brien and outlined at the start that he was speaking to him off-the record and confidentially.
He told him he might have been getting inaccurate information and he was contacting him out of sense of public duty to advise him to be cautious about what he was hearing in case he hurt somebody in the Garda.
He later contacted Mr O'Brien after hearing that Mr McCarthy had said he would call to his office with his solicitor and asked Mr O'Brien why had he misrepresented what he had said about Mr McCarthy to him.
He denied he had ever asked Mr O'Brien "to pull out of" the earlier conversation.
Mr O'Flynn declined to comment after the case.
Mr McCarthy said: "I am absolutely thrilled for my family and especially Brendan O'Brien, who stood by me, and Jack Doyle and everyone associated with this. Honesty wins out."