The Burnaby One Walks Free

It’s the longest-running criminal trial in the history of the State, and on Day 126, former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick has been acquitted of all charges.

The Burnaby resident had been on trial in relation to an alleged failure to disclose the extent of loans to the bank’s auditors.

Naturally, Sean had pleaded not guilty to all 27 offences under the 1990 Companies Act, and now the jury will be informed tomorrow, Wednesday, that all 22 charges have been dropped and the case will be dismissed.

Stating that the investigation – carried out by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) – had fallen short of being an unbiased, impartial, balanced investigation, Judge Aylmer, residing, argued that the most fundamental error was the manner in which the ODCE set about taking statements from witnesses.

With, Aylmer said, the investigation failing to seek out evidence as to the innocence as well as guilt of the accused, he drew particular attention to the coaching of witnesses, contamination of their statements from third parties, such as solicitors for the auditors, and cross-contamination of their statements between other witnesses.

The fact that the ODCE lead investigator, Kevin O’Connell, had admitted destroying potentially relevant documentary evidence, revealed during the first trial in May 2015. That had caused a retrial, which began in September of last year.

Initially scheduled to last three months, the new trial quickly became bogged down in legal argument in the absence of the jury, including claims that two key witnesses from Ernst&Young, Anglo’s former auditors, had been coached by investigators and that their statements had been put together by lawyers for Ernst&Young.

The prosecution alleged that FitzPatrick – who lives on Whitshed Road in The Burnaby – had failed to disclose to the bank’s auditor the details of director’s loans he received from Anglo between November 2002 and February 2008. It was when the ODCE discovered the size of FitzPatrick’s personal loans from the bank – quadrupling between 2005 and 2007 to around €122 million – that a prosecution was brought.

Man, you could buy at least three houses in Greystones for that kind of money. Ones with gardens too.