The two-week crazed rampage by a disgraced former minister
Expenses crook Callely admits harassing GP... but is still let walk free
IVOR Callely has escaped a jail term despite repeatedly ransacking a GP’s waiting room in a ‘bizarre’ and ‘sustained’ harassment campaign.
The disgraced former minister, 60, was secretly filmed pouring rubbish and scattering dirt over the floor and even smearing the wall with teabags and dust.
He was caught red-handed after Dr James Dolan installed a hidden camera in the premises that the GP sublet from Callely in Howth Road, Dublin.
The doctor initially thought children were responsible.
In one incident, Callely poured dust from a vacuum cleaner into the pages of magazines and then poured waste over the publications. He returned with a brush to sweep dirt on to the walls, Dublin District Court heard.
The former Fianna Fáil minister – jailed in 2014 after the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed he had fiddled his Dáil expenses – yesterday admitted one count of harassment and seven of criminal damage totalling €500.
Garda Declan O’Carolan told the court Dr Dolan had reported being the victim of ‘incidents of a malicious nature’.
The GP installed a hidden CCTV system, which captured incidents in the waiting room on seven dates between May 3 and June 7 last year during office hours and while the GP was seeing patients.In his victim impact statement, Dr Dolan said his practice has operated out of the building for 30 years but this had been going on for a year-and-a-half.
He said: ‘I go to work with a sense of dread.’
He explained that the rest of the building was in a derelict state: the intercom, lock and toilets were broken.
‘I have to apologise to patients for the appearance of the place. It’s very embarrassing.
In reaction to the dirt on the floors and the walls, at first he felt ‘puzzled’ and thought it was children messing ‘but it became relentless and I suspected Mr Callely and put the camera in’.
Describing the impact on his practice, the doctor said he had to explain to patients that ‘something is going on – by and large they are very understanding’.
Judge Kevin Staunton said Callely’s actions seemed like a comedy sketch but they were designed to cause as much grief as possible to the doctor.
There had been a dispute between the pair which has led to litigation in the civil courts over electricity costs, Judge Staunton was also told.
Among the litany of incidents, the court heard how: ÷ On May 3, Callely damaged carpet and a saddleboard on the flooring of the threshold to the waiting room and threw items of litter around. ÷ On May 9, he emptied waste on the floor and returned with a brush to spread it around. ÷ On May 11, he again threw waste on the floor and returned with more waste and came back a third time when he threw more rubbish in the room. ÷ He came back on May 16 and stood by the door of the surgery, while the doctor was having a private consultation with a patient. He then threw pieces of paper around the waiting room and tore up magazines left there by the doctor as reading material for his patients. During this incident he also positioned his head and face against the door of the surgery at the handle level while the doctor was inside with a patient. ÷ The following day he came back and ‘removed something from his mouth and put it on the floor and emptied waste items on the floor’. He smeared dust on the wall. He tore magazines provided by the GP for patients. ÷ On May 26 he smeared tea bags on the wall and later came back drinking a cup of tea. ÷ On June 7, Callely again damaged the saddleboard and threshold at the waiting room and poured dust from a vacuum cleaner into the pages of the magazines which he then poured waste over. He came back again that day with a brush to sweep dirt onto the walls.
Judge Staunton described the behaviour as ‘very bizarre’, saying he had ‘listened to the evidence with some incredulity’.
‘If it had not been captured on CCTV it would have been very difficult for the court to accept it happened,’ he said.
Judge Staunton noted Callely was a former political figure and now financially broke, facing litigation on various fronts and was under immense pressure.
‘Unfortunately,’ the judge said, ‘he did not flip once, there seems to be an element of sustained harassment here which the court cannot ignore.’
He described Callely’s actions as ‘an attempt to seriously damage the practice of Mr Dolan’.
The judge said the doctor had to
‘I went to work with a sense of dread’ ‘Something from a comedy sketch’
go to work ‘looking over his shoulder’. He said: ‘This behaviour is almost something you would see in a comedy sketch’ and he could see why the doctor initially thought it was kids messing.
The judge said: ‘It was designed to cause as much grief as possible to Dr Dolan.’
On the harassment, he imposed an eight-month sentence that he suspended on condition Callely does not re-offend in the next year. The other charges were taken into consideration.
In 2014 Callely of St Lawrence, Clontarf, north Dublin, was jailed by the Circuit Court for using false invoices to claim expenses worth €4,207.45 at Leinster House between November 2007 and December 2009 while he was a senator.
He also has a conviction for holding a mobile phone while driving and a conviction for driving without an NCT.
Noel O’Hanrahan, defending, issued an apology on behalf of Callely, who handed over €500 compensation in court.
The solicitor said the ex-politician was broke, involved in litigation and had marital problems.
Mr O’Hanrahan said Callely ‘flipped and did a very stupid thing which he apologises for’.
He said it was out of character, there was no excuse for it and it was not driven by ‘gratuitous malice’.
The solicitor said Callely ‘lost it and flipped’ but ‘unreservedly apologises’. He also said Callely was unlikely to commit an offence in the future.
Mr O’Hanrahan also told the court how Callely’s troubles have ‘come in battalions’ and that he was under inordinate pressure and assaulted by adversity on all sides.
Garda Declan O’Carolan agreed with the solicitor that Callely co-operated.
The garda agreed Callely was the main tenant in the building and the doctor was a sub-tenant, adding: ‘My understanding is Mr Callely wanted the doctor to leave the building.’