Lawlor family furious at prostitute claims
The family of former Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor, who was killed in a car crash in Moscow, today hit out at claims he may have been with a prostitute at the time of his death.
Mr Lawlor, who was jailed three times for failing to comply with the tribunal investigating planning corruption in Co Dublin, was on a business trip when he died in the crash in the Russian capital in the early hours of Saturday.
The accident killed the driver of the car and injured a young Ukrainian woman who was with them.
A Moscow Police spokesman said Mr Lawlor was not close friends with the woman and appeared to have met her in the street, reports said today.
But the 61-year-old former politician’s family has described the claims as inaccurate, reckless and vindictive.
“At this time of mourning it is deeply distressing that such hurtful allegations should be made in this way without checking their veracity,” they said in a statement.
The family asked for space to cope with their loss.
Following his death, arrangements were being made for the repatriation of Mr Lawlor’s body to Ireland for a funeral planned for the end of the week.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Irish Embassy in Moscow was working to ensure Mr Lawlor’s remains could be brought back as quickly as possible.
Fellow Lucan politician Labour Senator Joanna Tuffy today said she wanted to extend her deepest sympathies to Mr Lawlor’s family in the wake of his death.
“Although a controversial political figure, Liam Lawlor was a diligent representative of the people in this area for many years.
“He was also invariably courteous in his dealings with other public representatives in the area,” she said.
The man described as his old adversary, Mr Justice Feargus Flood, who presided over the planning tribunal when Mr Lawlor gave his evidence, said the former deputy was a larger-than-life character.
“The death of anybody who you know is a very sad event and I would like to convey my condolences to his family who must be in a deep state of shock.
“I think he was a larger-than-life character and had his own agenda, and I’m not sure my agenda and his were on the same track, and I think that’s probably the reality of that,” he said.
The judge told RTE Radio he thought it was within the bounds of possibility that Mr Lawlor might have had the chance of a cabinet position had he not chosen a different path.
The Dublin West TD, who first entered the Dáil in 1977, was a member of Fianna Fáil until 2000 when he resigned from the party following an internal party investigation into planning corruption.
He initially refused to go before the planning tribunal, but later admitted to receiving payments from lobbyist Frank Dunlop, in the scandal which saw politicians receive bribes to rezone land for development.
His refusal to comply with orders from the tribunal, including furnishing them with financial records, led him to be jailed on three occasions for a total of six weeks.
Three days into his third, month-long, spell behind bars in February 2002 for failing to comply with the tribunal, he was released by the High Court for a matter of hours to attend the Dail where he heard unanimous calls for his resignation.
Having supported Fianna Fáil in the Dáil as an independent TD for two years following his resignation from the party he eventually decided not to stand as a candidate in the 2002 General Election.
The news of his death overshadowed his former party’s Ard Fheis in Killarny, Co Kerry, this weekend, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern paid tribute to his former colleague, describing him as an engaging, witty and larger-than-life character.
