No justice for the ordinary man, says angry father

AN angry father claimed yesterday that there is no justice system for the ordinary man after he and his family had to take a civil action in the High Court against the owners of a nightclub where his son died after a row with staff.

Andrew Moynihan said no amount of compensation could ever replace his son Adrian.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern yesterday approved an undisclosed settlement, believed to be a six-figure sum, and made an order for €25,400 against Michael Corbett, the club’s licensee and Kevin Corbett, a bouncer, for the distress caused to Mr Moynihan and his family arising from his son’s death.

But a clearly angry father, whose son Andrew died after the incident at Sidetrax nightclub on April 26, 2001, said it was never about the money.

Despite video evidence showing how Adrian Moynihan was restrained by security staff at the club and the opinion of State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy that the manner of this restraint was a factor in his death, the Director of Public Prosecutions twice refused to bring charges against anyone.

Mr Moynihan previously went on hunger strike to highlight the case, an action he said would not have been necessary if there was a proper justice system in place.

“It’s working for the criminal and the big shot, but not for the ordinary in-between man, there’s no justice system for him,” he said.

Mr Moynihan and his wife Lilly were accompanied by their four sons and their daughter to hear the nightclub owners’ legal representative read a statement admitting liability in negligence.

But the dead man’s father said the award would provide little compensation to them.

“All we want is our son, even if he was half-dead and we had to care for him for the rest of our lives, we’d have been satisfied with that. How can money replace a life, a son, a daughter? It can’t be done,” he said.

“The compensation won’t do anything for us because it was never about money. We wanted to get someone in there before a judge to let him see and hear what they had to say,” said Mr Moynihan.

His wife was too upset to watch the video evidence shown to the court during the half-hour hearing.

Afterwards, the family’s solicitor Terry O’Sullivan described it as an unhappy end to a very unhappy chapter.

“They always wanted to see the person responsible for the death of their son in a criminal dock and, for reasons best known to the office of the DPP, that didn’t happen,” he said.

“This is the next best thing, they didn’t want a civil action but there were no other options available,” he said.