Former doctor on trial for deception

The mother of a terminally ill 15-year old boy told a jury today that a former doctor told her son that he would cure him of cancer.

Christina O'Sullivan told Ennis Circuit Court that Paschal Carmody told her husband Derek, her son Conor and herself on the 9th of July 2002 that his photodynamic form of treatment for cancer "would work a treat" on Conor's form of cancer.

Conor had been told two months before by his consultant doctor that he had six months to live after his cancer had returned. He died four months after the consultation with Mr Carmody on November 13, 2002.

Mr Carmody (60) of Ballycuggaran, Killaloe, Co Clare is pleading not guilty to 25 separate charges of obtaining €80,172 from six terminally ill cancer patients and their families by deception between September 2001 and October 2002.

All six patients are now dead.

The trial continues before Judge Rory McCabe tomorrow.