Lynn: ‘My austere parents never gave me gifts as a child’
Convicted thief asked for less jail time due to a lack of birthday presents as a kid
CONVICTED thief Michael Lynn asked for less jail time because he had an austere childhood and was never given birthday presents by his parents, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The impact of Lynn’s frugal youth is one of a number of observations made in a psychiatric report by forensic psychologist Dr Ríoghnach O’Leary.
The report forms part of a 305page mitigation submission – a plea for a reduced sentence – Lynn provided to Judge Martin Nolan at his sentencing hearing on Monday.
Lynn, who was convicted of stealing €18 million from various banks in December, received a global sentence of 16 years which was reduced in mitigation to a five-anda-half-year term – which after remission is applied will see him out in four years time.
In his assessment, Dr O’Leary told the court Lynn ‘was deprived of birthday presents in childhood and was exposed to a frugal way of life by his parents’.
The report states: ‘He did not receive presents as a child as presents were deemed to be a waste of money.’
He added that there was an ‘overarching focus on productivity and religious practices’ at Lynn’s childhood home, where the rosary was said every evening.
This resulted in Lynn learning ‘from a young age that hard work
‘Presents were deemed to be a waste of money’
and meeting one’s obligations is what earns love and acceptance from others’.
The assessment goes on to say: ‘It is possible that these experiences in childhood engendered a desire within him to obtain wealth and luxury in adulthood.’
It concluded Lynn’s childhood ‘undoubtedly contributed’ to the ‘obsessive work ethic… that led him to experience elevated selfworth and a sense of mastery’ via property development.
Dr O’Leary also referenced early indications of Lynn’s tendency to cut corners.
One example is that ‘he spent significant amounts of time’ figuring out the exam question strategy of his teachers ‘in order to study as little as possible’.
Another involves Lynn’s time studying law, during which he worked several jobs.
To get by, Lynn ‘bought the notes of a classmate at the end of the year and used these to study and pass his exams’.
Early exposures to unethical behaviour in the workplace also feature in the report.
In his first job as an in-house solicitor for a commercial company, Lynn told Dr O’Leary of ‘free holidays’ being given to prominent media personalities ‘in return for not publicly reporting’ legal cases against the firm.
The assessment describes how Lynn was later exposed to a ‘plenitude of questionable and unethical professional behaviour’ in banking and property development.
This, the assessment suggests, led to him believing ‘it was acceptable to bend rules in order to make a financial profit’.
As part of his mitigation submission, Lynn also submitted a firsthand account of his time in prison in Brazil.
He described walls ‘covered with old, unwashed excrement’ and a regime of brutal terror. Lynn said ‘it was impossible to avoid beatings’ and described how he suffered a ‘dislocated right shoulder due to an attack’. He also recounted standing beside another prisoner who was shot at by a prison guard. Lynn listed several medical issues arising out of his time in the Brazilian jail, including repeated bouts of lung infections, possible TB, skin cancer and dental neglect which required extensive work when he returned to Ireland.
He said prison food was ‘often contaminated by maggots or vermin or simply inedible’.
The former solicitor said some of these horrific and violent conditions became ‘normalised’ in time, but there were ‘moments of utter shock and fear that were never normalised’.
‘One such occasion was the murder by decapitation of a prisoner,’ he told the court.
‘The decapitation was carried out by twisting the victim’s body and head in opposing directions. The sight and sound of that incident left me unable to eat for days and disturbed my sleep continuously for weeks. It continues to do so from time to time.’
In his first-hand account to Judge Nolan, Lynn said this was one of two murders he witnessed.
This is a claim Lynn also made under oath on the stand during his initial trial.
But in his submission this week, Dr O’Leary clarified Lynn had ‘watched video footage of two murders while incarcerated and he noted that one of the men was beheaded’.
Dr O’Leary’s assessment agreed Lynn is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for which psychotherapy and anti-depression drugs have been prescribed.
In her submission to the court, Lynn’s wife, Bríd Murphy, described having to undergo full body searches in public while visiting her husband in prison.
A social work report commissioned by Lynn’s legal team detailed the impact on the couple’s children and described how the family was caught up in a prison riot.
Commenting on the submissions, Judge Nolan said Lynn’s experience had been ‘brought upon him largely by his own actions’.
He noted: ‘If he had come back and dealt with the matter he would not have needed to be in a Brazilian prison, would he? He could have lessened his difficulties by agreeing to come home.
‘I’m not saying it could have been done immediately, but it seems to me if he wanted to end the ordeal it was in his own hands.’