PROMOTION BATTLE OF THE ANGLO ‘SHREDDER’
Seánie Fitz trial solicitor sued State over Attorney General job snub
THE State’s chief investigator into toxic Anglo Irish Bank sued the State in an attempt to access a job for which he was not qualified.
Kevin O’Connell – who admitted to the Circuit Court that he had shredded evidence that should have been turned over to former Anglo CEO Seán Fitz Patrick’s legal team – took the case in 2000.
At that time, he was working at the State Solicitor’s Office, and sought to challenge the requirement for persons ranked third and fourth legal assistants in the Attorney General’s Office to be barristers.
In an affidavit, according to a report of the case in the Irish Times, Mr O’Connell, then 30 years of age and three years qualified as a solicitor, argued that he was precluded from the competition for the posts by virtue of being a solicitor but in all other respects he was suitable.
His affidavit asserted that he had the requisite qualifications and experience to qualify.
However, Judge Aindrias Ó Caoimh – now a judge of the European Court of Justice – said the advertisement for the position of fourth legal secretary clearly specified that applicants must have at least four years’ legal experience.
In this case, Mr O’Connell had only
three, the judge said, adding that on this ground alone, he must fail in his application. This revelation is sure to cause even further embarrassment for the ODCE, whose handling of the doomed case has provoked public outrage.
The country’s longest ever criminal trial abruptly ended last week. It was the second trial after the first was stopped and the jury discharged following an incident where Mr O’Connell, in a moment of panic, destroyed evidence the day after he had finished a sixday stint in the witness box. He was subsequently hospitalised.
Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell-O’Connor has demanded a report from ODCE officials about their handling of the case, which, the trial judge said, had led to the bank chief not getting a fair trial.
Former Anglo Irish chairman Seán FitzPatrick, 68, had pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of making misleading, false or deceptive statements to the bank’s auditors over loans to make the bank’s balance sheets appear healthier than they were.
But the 127-day trial collapsed after Judge John Aylmer directed the jury to acquit the bank chief because prosecution witnesses were coached, statements were altered, and documents were shredded by ODCE solicitor Mr O’Connell.
During the controversial trial, the 46-yearold solicitor admitted these actions were ‘wrong’ and ‘unlawful’.
In his defence, he said he had never before had a central role in a criminal investigation. However, two years after taking his doomed case against the State, Mr O’Connell boasted about his level of criminal experience while addressing legal colleagues at an event organised by the Law Society in February 2002.
During a speech about the ODCE, Mr O’Connell told solicitors: ‘I am a solicitor, qualified for four and a half years – the first two of which were spent in private practice where I dealt mainly with criminal defence work and issues of environmental law.
‘I then spent two years in the advisory division of the Chief State Solicitor’s Office dealing with the wonderfully varied set of legal challenges which confront the State on an everyday basis. From there, I was sent on secondment for just under six months to the Criminal Assets Bureau, following which I took up duty about four weeks ago as one of the legal advisers to the director of corporate enforcement.’
The Anglo inquiry was launched in December 2008, and Mr O’Connell
‘ The reputation of the ODCE is in shreds’
was given the task. Former ODCE director Paul Appleby was in charge of the agency at the time. He has since retired from the ODCE on an annual pension of €73,000 on top of a €225,000 retirement lump sum. He delayed his retirement because of fears it could impact on the investigation but was permitted to retain the higher pension entitlements he would have received if he retired in February 2012.
Prior to this investigation, Mr O’Connell had dealt mainly with summary offences at district court level. Crucially, he had never before taken a witness statement.
Mr O’Connell still works in the ODCE – as a customer complaints appeals officer. He has not faced any investigation into the destruction of evidence. He has also not faced disciplinary action for shredding the files. In a statement released following Mr FitzPatrick’s acquittal the office said it ‘fully accepts’ the criticism but said the organisation had undergone substantial organisational change.
However, figures released to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week (see panel, below right) there are just six gardaí, including two sergeants and four gardaí, seconded to the ODCE. Taoiseach Enda Kenny and opposition leader Micheál Martin rounded on the ODCE this week in the Dáil. Mr Martin said the collapse of the trial was a ‘damning indictment of the ODCE’. He said the case was ‘a catastrophic systemic failure’ and ‘the reputation of the ODCE is in shreds’. The Taoiseach agreed with Mr Martin, adding: ‘A minister in charge of something like this would face instant dismissal.’ Mr Kenny also hit back at a complaint by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement that it didn’t have resources to properly investigate Mr FitzPatrick. He said any request for resources had been granted. Mr O’Connell declined to comment through a Department of Enterprise spokesman.