Judge casts doubt on soccer club sale letter
A High Court judge has cast doubt on a 2003 letter that denied former Government minister Michael Lowry was linked to the purchase of a UK property by businessman Denis O’Brien.
Justice Dan Herbert made his comments on the second day of a legal bid by Portugal-based Mr O’Brien (aged 46) to stop the Moriarty Tribunal holding public hearings into his personal business affairs.
The court heard today of a letter sent to the Tribunal by a UK solicitor which clarified his earlier claim
that Mr Lowry had “total involvement” in the sale of the Doncaster Rovers site in 1998.
Justice Herbert said the correspondence from Northampton-based Christopher Vaughan in March 2003 “was a trifle ambiguous” and didn’t “emphatically state that Mr Lowry wasn’t involved” in the the £3.7m (€5.45m) property deal.
Mr Vaughan and Northern Ireland-based businessman, Kevin Phelan have so far refused to appear before the Payments to Politicians Tribunal.
But lawyers for O’Brien want them compelled to give evidence so they can be properly cross-examined on allegations against Mr O’Brien.
Mr Vaughan’s letter in March 2003 said that he had “formed a totally incorrect view” that Mr Lowry was involved in the Doncaster deal because the former minister had been at a meeting during which the transaction was discussed in a “frank manner.”
The Tribunal is investigating payments to former Communications minister Mr Lowry and if he was involved in the Doncaster deal, although Mr O’Brien insisted the current Tipperary North TD wasn’t.
Earlier, Eoin McGonigal, SC for Mr O’Brien said his client’s good name and business reputation was being tarnished by the Tribunal’s public hearings into the Doncaster transaction.
The lawyer said this was a breach of Mr O’Brien’s right to natural and constitutional justice under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The hearing continues.
