Daughter of Frank Shortt 'outraged'
The daughter of Frank Shortt, who spent three years in jail due to a wrongful conviction of allowing drugs to be sold at his club, has said she is “outraged” at the €1.9m compensation paid by the State to her father.
Speaking on RTE radio on Sunday, Sabrina Shortt, said: “I am completely outraged, and I do take it as a personal insult and regarding my father words cannot describe how devastated at it.”
Ms Shortt described a complete change in her father’s personality as a result of his experience in jail and of his treatment by Ireland’s legal system.
“He is a different person now. He is completely obsessed with this case because he was so wronged, and he continues to be wronged and he was wronged again on Wednesday 12 October,” she said.
Ms Shortt described the harassment which her family suffered when her father was found guilty of allowing drugs to be sold at his pub in Inishowen, County Donegal.
“When I was sixteen my father was sent to prison. A lot of my friends weren’ t allowed to come to my house anymore. My brothers and sisters got a lot of harassment at school, both from teachers and from their friends – having papers and things thrown at them on the bus,” she said.
Ms Shortt said her mother had to take over the business, while simultaneously campaigning to have Mr Shortt released from prison. Each Sunday the family drove for four and a half hours to Dublin, to visit Mr Shortt in jail in Dublin.
“We got one to two hours with my father, who spent the entire time talking to my mother about getting him out of prison, about dealing with finances at home, dealing with bills, people to talk to, ministers to talk to. By the time he had finished giving her the list of things to do, it was time to go back again. That was the way it went, every weekend,” she said.
Despite her father being cleared of any wrongdoing, Ms Shortt said the family were still “battling” to bring their lives back to normality. “It isn’t happening,” she said.
