HICKEY SHARES CELL WITH IRISH ‘TICKET TOUT’
ASTONISHING PRISON PICTURES AND DIARY EXTRACTS
Olympics chief will only have legal fees covered if he wins
OLYMPIC Council of Ireland supremo Pat Hickey is sharing a cell with the controversial THG hospitality executive Kevin Mallon in Rio de Janerio’s notorious Bangu Prison, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Prison authorities confirmed that the two Irishmen at the centre of an international ticketing scandal which has rocked the Rio Olympics are now cellmates. The MoS can also reveal that: Mr Hickey was warned moments before police raided his hotel room that detectives were on the way, after a mysterious note was put under his door on Wednesday and
Judge feared Hickey and Mallon would skip bail If found guilty OCI will not pay his legal fees
Mr Hickey will have to pay his own legal costs if he is found guilty of being part of an international ticket touting cartel.
It is understood Mr Hickey had his head shaved as he awaits a hearing, possibly on Tuesday, after his initial request to be released on Thursday was turned down because the presiding judge decided he was a flight risk, according to a court document that emerged yesterday.
The judge who signed the order to imprison Mr Hickey at Bangu Prison said she did so to prevent him leaving the country.
In a statement published on the Rio Courts Service website the judge cites the case of James Sinton – then-CEO of the Marcus Evansowned THG Sports – who was arrested during the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. He was awarded bail and promptly left the country and has not returned to answer the charges against him.
At the same time, FIFA hospitality partner executive Ray Whelan was imprisoned in Bangu after being arrested in Copacabana, Rio, on suspicion of participating in a World Cup ticket scalping ring.
Citing the example of Sinton, Judge Mariana Tavares Shu issued a preventative detention order for Pat Hickey, 71, and Kevin Mallon, 36, is the Dublin finance director of THG Sports who was arrested with 813 mostly OCI tickets two weeks ago.
The judge said: ‘All involved are foreigners and do not have permanent residence in the country, so it seems likely that, if it remains at liberty, they would escape.’
Meanwhile, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee – of which Mr Hickey is a member – told a news conference in Rio last night that Pat Hickey has not yet been heard by a judge and should be presumed innocent.
Mr Bach said: ‘The presumption of innocence at this time remains, and therefore we, with respect to the law and legal procedures here in Brazil, cannot comment further at this moment.’
His comments come at the end of a extraordinary week in Irish sporting history which saw our – and Europe’s – top Olympic administrator arrested in his dressing gown in the plush Windsor Marapendi Hotel.
Police told reporters that when they went to arrest Mr Hickey in his own room, he wasn’t there and they were told by his wife Sylviane he had left for Ireland. After a search of the hotel, Mr Hickey was found naked in an adjoining room registered in the name of one of his sons.
The MoS can reveal this bizarre turn of events occurred after a note was passed under his door moments before the raid in which police were accompanied by journalists.
A source close to the OCI told the MoS: ‘I got a phone call telling me Pat had been arrested in his dressing gown in his son’s room – apparently he was hiding there.
‘I understand a note was put under his door, just before the police arrived about 6am, warning him what was about to happen. He got to the son’s room which was nearby and left his wife to deal with the police.
‘To say that members of the Olympic community in Ireland are shocked is an understatement. Pat has always seemed untouchable.
‘There’s a significant number of people in Irish sport who would have loved to see him gone down the years but people were always scared to moved against him. He has a fearsome reputation.’
Asked about this version of events through his Brazil-based lawyer, Mr Hickey did not respond to a request for comment. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison after a potentially long expensive trial. But it appears he also has to worry about funding his defence after the OCI confirmed he is being represented separately and it will not fund him unless he his defence is successful.
An OCI spokeswoman told the MoS that according to its rules: ‘Mr Hickey’s legal fees will be paid if he is not convicted of the offences for which he is being held but his fees will not be paid if he is convicted of those offences.’
Legal experts – including the firm representing Mr Hickey – conceded that at best that it would be ‘expensive’ with costs running easily to six figures.
The firm representing Mr Hickey, Arthur Lavigne Associated Lawyers, says it has ‘a long experience in crisis management and covers all areas of criminal law’.
It successfully defended billionaire pastor Edir Macedo – founder of the Evangelical mega church Universal Church of the Kingdom of God– against money laundering and formation of a cartel, one of the crimes Mr Hickey is accused of, in 2009.
Video emerged yesterday of a large bundle of tickets being found by police in Mr Mallon’s hotel room safe. It comes as police reportedly said Mr Hickey had been ‘evasive’ with them and made no confession.
Meanwhile, the 11 other members of the OCI’s board have employed Arthur Cox, one of the capitals’ most expensive legal firms, to represent them at the proposed independent inquiry instigated by Sports Minister Shane Ross.
It is understood that a meeting of the OCI council, which includes Olympian Sonia O’Sullivan and FAI boss John Delaney, will meet today at the Dublin offices of Arthur Cox.
The probe is to be undertaken by an as yet unnamed retired judge and it will not have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence. The inquiry is expected to have completed its final report within three months but its terms of reference have yet to be decided.
Responding to suggestions that the inquiry would be hampered by the absence of Mr Hickey, a senior government source said: ‘The fact that Hickey is in jail is a pity. I think that he could be there for a while. Justice in Brazil is not fast moving, as you can see from Mallon’s case as he has not been charged yet.
‘Worst case he could get seven years. You’d have to feel sorry for him. On Tuesday afternoon he was in cracking form, absolutely cracking form.’
Prior to Wednesday’s dramatic events, the OCI and the Government agreed about the need for an independent presence on the OCI inquiry into the scandal. The source said: ‘We were a bit surprised as on Tuesday a deal was done.’
The directors of Pro10, appointed as Ireland’s Olympic ticketing agent, have also employed solicitors to represent them. Pro10 told the MoS two weeks ago it did not have any formal arrangement with Kevin Mallon and that it did not pay him to be a ‘collecting point’.
However, it has since emerged that phone calls to a Pro10 ticket line diverted to THG in the weeks leading up to the Rio Games.
When the MoS contacted the Marcus Evans Group in the UK on Friday asking who was handling its media enquiries, we were given the number for Insight Consultants in Dublin, which also handles media enquiries for Pro10.
Insight Consultants’ Declan Lee insisted the company worked only for Pro10, but was otherwise at a loss to explain the link.