My son lost his job over publicity, says disgraced judge. No, he didn't, Mrs Perrin
Claim to tribunal does not stand up as her boy didn’t seek work at stud this year
THE son of the first judge ever jailed for committing criminal offences did not lose a job because of his mother’s trial, as was claimed this week, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
District Judge Heather Perrin was given a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence in November 2012 for deception for attempting to con an 83-year-old friend and client out of half-a-million euro by writing the names of her son and daughter, Adam and Sybil, into the elderly man’s will. She was also convicted of false accounting.
At a Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal held last week, it was claimed that the disgraced 62-year-old former judge’s only son had lost his job as a result of his mother’s conviction.
She did not attend the hearing, which found her guilty of professional misconduct.
The claim was based on instructions given by Mrs Perrin to her solicitor. However, the MoS has since established that Mrs Perrin’s son Adam currently works with a County Tipperary-based transport firm called Ballinroe International Horse Transport.
It is also understood that the keen horseman had seasonal temporary contracts with Coolmore Stud from 2010-2013 but that he did not seek work there this year, raising doubts over the claim that he lost work.
The former judge has been living at the family home in the upmarket Dublin coastal town of Malahide since she was released from prison three months early in July.
The wealthy family also own a Georgian-style pile on the outskirts of Cashel, Co Tipperary.
Respected Dublin-based solicitor Sean Sexton represented the disgraced judge. He was given his instructions in respect of last week’s hearing.
Asked this weekend about claims made by the disgraced judge about her son, Mr Sexton told the MoS: ‘I have spoken to my client in relation to this matter and it would appear there is a misunderstanding between herself and myself on the context in which these instructions were given to me.
‘I have been asked by Heather to ask you not to publish anything in relation to her son and him losing a job or anything like that.
‘In fairness to him, he’s an innocent party to all of this.’
Adam Perrin did not respond to queries from the MoS.
Meanwhile, during last week’s two-day disciplinary case, which was taken by the Law Society, a man with severe learning difficulties told the tribunal that he had wanted to query her about where money she was ‘minding’ for him had gone.
Gerard O’Callaghan has severe dyslexia and since 1994 he had entrusted Mrs Perrin with over €90,200 in cash. This money was used to carry out a ‘number of matters’ on his behalf.
Mr O’Callaghan, 57, told the tribunal that Mrs Perrin always instructed him to sign a blank piece of paper every time she handed him a cheque and that when he asked for receipts for the payments he ‘never got any’.
Then in 1997, she informed him that his ‘money was all gone’ and it was at this stage that Mr O’Callaghan and his brother, Austin, visited the solicitor.
Gerard O’Callaghan told the tribunal that when he confronted her to ask about receipts and his money ‘she never gave me an answer’.
The tribunal found Mrs Perrin guilty of two counts of professional misconduct.
Mrs Perrin was ordered to pay €5,000 to the Law Society’s Compensation Fund.
Meanwhile, the Law Society is to apply to the High Court to have her struck off for a second time.