THE CIRCUMSTANCES that led to the trial of a Galway pensioner charged with trying to extort €5,000 from a former Fianna Fáil councillor were described yesterday as “Gubu”, the acronym derived from a comment by former taoiseach Charlie Haughey: “Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented”.
Patrick Walsh (69), Friar’s Hill, Rahoon, Galway, denies the attempted theft of €5,000 from Independent councillor Michael Fahy (59), Ardrahan in south Galway, between December 23rd, 2008, and April 4th, 2009.
Mr Walsh sought the money in exchange for tape recordings that he claimed would exonerate Mr Fahy, who is appealing a conviction for misappropriation of public funds.
Conor Fahy, prosecuting, told the jury of seven women and five men at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that the facts were quite bizarre.
“In fact, they have all the elements of a cheap B movie – cheap and grotesque. It could be said this is Gubu – ‘grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented’ – yet it all amounts to a most serious criminal offence,” Mr Fahy said.
Gardaí received a complaint from Mr Fahy on January 13th last year stating he had been receiving phone calls from a man calling himself David Wallace. The man said he was using a false name because he was a civil servant in the Four Courts who often deputised for the DPP.
The caller first made phone contact on Christmas Eve 2008, while Mr Fahy was making funeral arrangements for his 98-year-old mother.
The caller said he had two tape recordings containing “shocking information” that would exonerate the councillor if he gave him €250,000. The prosecutor said that in later calls, between December 2008 and April 2009, the amount demanded fell to €5,000.
On April 7th, 2009, after making several calls, the man arranged to meet Cllr Fahy in front of the Law Library at the Four Courts in Dublin.
They met in the car park and retired to the Legal Eagle bar. Gardaí had the meeting under surveillance, and when Mr Fahy went to the toilet, they arrested Patrick Walsh on suspicion of extortion.
Mr Fahy said Mr Walsh had a sealed brown envelope containing two compact discs, two floppy disks and a cassette tape.
The tapes contained nothing of great significance. One was titled On Understanding Company Strategy, and the other Think and Grow Rich.
Mr Fahy said the caller first rang him on Christmas Eve in 2008, just hours after his mother had died. The caller told the councillor he was ringing from his apartment in Spain and would call again on New Year’s Eve.
In the second call, the man said he was using a fictitious name because he was a civil servant in the Four Courts and deputised at times for the DPP.
He rang again on January 5th, 2009, and the price for the tapes had dropped by then to €5,000.
Mr Fahy said that during the second phone call he told the caller he had mentioned the matter to his then solicitor, Gearóid Geraghty in Ballinasloe.
“I played David Wallace along to see what he had but I had no intention at any time of handing over the money. I told him to go to the guards with the tapes too,” Mr Fahy said.
Mr Fahy was convicted in February 2007 of charges relating to the erection of fencing on his land and was fined and sentenced to a year in jail.
He served eight months and then had his conviction struck down by the Court of Criminal Appeal, which ordered a retrial. He was convicted in December 2008 of one charge of fraud, and is appealing this to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The trial continues.