A senior district-court clerk was "obsessed" with Judge O Buachalla and tracked the progression of the Nevin licence transfer in a personal diary, according to counsel for the judge at yesterday's sitting of the O Buachalla Inquiry.
Mr John Rogers SC, cross-examining Mr William Sexton of Gorey District Court, said 30 references to the judge were contained in his diary.
"You were tracking Judge O Buachalla and at a certain point you ceased helping him and you began to impede him . . . You were writing down notes in a most suspicious way," said Mr Rogers.
Mr Sexton said he made entries on the Nevin licence to "keep myself abreast" as no application existed for official notes to be recorded.
Mr Rogers said Mr Sexton had failed to bring matters to the judge's attention including a letter from Nevin's solicitor, Mr Donnchadh Lehane, a letter from the Department of Justice, and a telephone call he received from Insp Peter Finn. Mr Rogers said the judge was forced into a corner as a result of the "controlling influence" of Mr Sexton who was at the very centre of the affair. He also accused Mr Sexton of "squaring" a summons. Mr Sexton said he had done this in relation to very few court summonses.
According to Mr Sexton, his relationship with Judge O Buachalla was excellent from the arrival of the judge in 1992 until 1997, but it soured over the licence issue for a number of months.
Mr Sexton attended the meeting in Judge O Buachalla's chambers on June 13th, 1997, when Mr Lehane sought advice from the judge. He said he advised that a certificate of transfer was necessary but his advice was set aside. An authorisation document was signed later by the judge to allow for the deletion of Mr Nevin's name. Mr Sexton said he had never seen a document like this before.
"You had a position that Catherine Nevin was not the holder of the licence even though her name was on it," said Mr Rogers. "She was a named person on a licence," replied Mr Sexton.
In a diary entry, Mr Sexton described the meeting as a "charade". However, he stressed yesterday that this was a passing thought and he had never expressed it openly.
On June 16th, 1997, a Customs and Excise official, Mr Michael Goodwin, rang Mr Sexton and in response to a query read out the authorisation to Mr Goodwin who then asked for an opinion. "As far as I was concerned it was a document signed by the judge. I couldn't make a comment on it," said Mr Sexton.
He invited Mr Goodwin to write to him with a number of questions that could be put to the judge. Responding to Mr Rogers, he confirmed he had helped draft the letter.
The next month Judge O Buachalla asked Mr Sexton if he had been interfering in the matter and made any phone calls. Mr Sexton informed him of the call from Mr Goodwin. "I felt it was accusing me. I felt hurt by that," he said.
Responding to Mr Sean Ryan SC, counsel for the inquiry, Mr Sexton detailed an incident in a Gorey pub on September 25th, 1997, when Judge O Buachalla saw him having lunch with Supt Jeremiah P. Flynn. "Oh, oh, oh. Say no more, say no more," said the judge, and sat at another table on his own.