Shortt family in six-figure settlement over set-up

THE wife and children of Frank Shortt, the Donegal publican falsely jailed for drugs offences after being set up by gardaí, yesterday agreed a massive six-figure compensation settlement with the State.

Well-known businessman Mr Shortt was set up by rogue gardaí and framed for allowing ecstasy to be sold in his popular Inishowen nightclub, the Point Inn, in the mid-1990s.

The 71-year-old languished in jail for more than two years before being freed in 1998. But Mr Shortt had to wait until 2002 for his name to be fully cleared.

His wife Sally and five children, aged between 24 and 34, were compensated for the distress and suffering caused by their father’s wrongful imprisonment. The settlement is believed to be for six figures and comes after 1.9 million was awarded to Mr Shortt last year.

Outside the Four Courts in Dublin, Jalisco Shortt, the eldest son, said the family were happy the matter had been resolved.

“No amount of money could ever reflect the trauma that we have went through really,” he said. “It wasn’t about the money.

“It was about clearing our father’s name, that was the main thing all the way along and finally we now feel that we have done so, and we are all happy now and we would just like to go home and live our lives.”

The family received hate mail and malicious telephone calls after their father’s imprisonment.

Jalisco Shortt and his sister were both forced to leave the Inishowen area after they found it difficult to get work.

They were branded outcasts and members of a drug dealing family.

Two rogue gardaí, former superintendent Kevin Lennon and his accomplice ex-detective garda Noel McMahon, concocted the frame-up.

They were later branded corrupt by the Morris Tribunal for setting hoax IRA arms dumps in Donegal in the mid-1990s as they tried to further their careers.

Mr Shortt was wrongly jailed in 1995.

He served 27 months of a three-year sentence in Mountjoy Prison.

In 2000, he appealed his conviction, which the Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose.

But he had to wait until 2002 when the Court of Criminal Appeal granted him a certificate of innocence after declaring a miscarriage of justice.

A judge described the garda’s actions as an outrageous abuse of power.

In yesterday’s settlement the State acknowledged the considerable suffering and distress caused to the Shortt family. But it refused to admit liability.

Mr Shortt’s 28-year-old daughter Sabrina said yesterday: “It is quite traumatic to be 16 and have your father sent to prison.

“Everybody was affected in different ways and coped with it in different ways.

“This will hopefully be the last time I’m in court and in front of any cameras talking about this.”