A man has received a three-year jail sentence for blackmailing a former Fianna Fáil councillor using pictures of him allegedly taking cocaine.
Wesley Higgins (33) attempted to extort €5,000 from Liam Kelly, a Dublin City councillor for Finglas-Glasnevin, by threatening to give the pictures to a newspaper.
When Mr Kelly refused to hand over the money, Higgins sold the pictures to the Sunday World where they appeared shortly afterwards. The court heard Higgins was addicted to cocaine at the time and needed money for drugs.
Mr Kelly told the court he did not want to see Higgins imprisoned.
However, Judge Desmond Hogan called it a “premeditated, conniving and sly” crime and imposed a three-year term, with the final 18 months suspended. “This is a very serious offence which is met with universal public opprobrium,” the judge said.
He said Mr Kelly was targeted because he was a public representative and “a decent, charitable man who unfortunately had a weakness; a severe problem with drink”.
The court heard Mr Kelly is a recovering alcoholic who does not remember large parts of the night when the pictures were taken but has always denied taking cocaine.
Higgins of Dundaniel Road, Kilmore, Coolock had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to demanding money with menaces between August 6th and 12th, 2006. Midway through the trial, Higgins changed his plea to guilty before the jury.
Det Gda Martin Wall told prosecuting counsel, Tony McGillicuddy BL, that Mr Kelly knew Higgins on a casual basis and arranged to be picked up by him in the city centre and brought to a house party in the early hours of the morning.
When he arrived at the house, there were only three other people there. He stayed until 7am that morning. Later that day he got a voicemail from Higgins asking for a loan of money followed by another voicemail asking for a place to sleep.
Several days later, Higgins again phoned the councillor and said a girl in the house had pictures of him taking cocaine and wanted €5,000 to not go to the newspapers. Higgins added that he would also “need to be looked after himself”.
The following Saturday, a Sunday World journalist confronted Mr Kelly with the pictures and asked him if he was taking cocaine. Mr Kelly denied he was and alerted the gardaí.
Higgins was arrested and initially claimed he was acting as a go-between for the woman in return for €500. He later admitted selling the photos to the newspaper himself for €4,500.
Defence counsel Keith Spencer BL said that Mr Kelly was taking a “philosophical” and “benevolent” view towards Higgins and did not want him jailed. Counsel said Higgins had a serious cocaine addiction at the time but is now drug-free.
He said he is engaged to be married and has a seven-year-old daughter. Mr Spencer added that his client works as a motorbike courier and has a very supportive family.
Counsel submitted that Higgins should only be sentenced for the blackmail attempt and not the subsequent adverse publicity that followed.
“It’s perfectly lawful for someone to have pictures of somebody and go to a newspaper,” he said. “Wesley Higgins himself suffered adverse publicity, although the court will be relatively unsympathetic to that.”