Prendeville will not contest any charges

NEIL Prendeville says he will not contest any charges that may arise from his behaviour on an Aer Lingus flight – despite claiming he can’t remember what he did.

The Cork radio presenter is expected to be questioned by gardaí investigating complaints that he exposed himself and masturbated on a plane journey from London to Cork last month.

In a series of arranged newspaper interviews over the weekend, Mr Prendeville repeated his assertion that his mind was a blank on the incident which he blamed on the combination of over-the-counter painkillers and alcohol he said he took on a promotional trip with the Cork Convention Bureau.

But he said he would not be challenging any prosecution that might result when gardaí, currently interviewing witnesses, submit their file to the DPP. “I’m not going to be putting up any sort of defence. I hold my hand up and say: ‘If this is what happened, I take responsibility.’”

He even said if descriptions of his behaviour were accurate, he should already have been arrested – either before the plane, which was preparing for take-off when cabin crew confronted him, left Heathrow, or when it landed at Cork Airport.

The father-of-two said the incident was completely out of character for him and he had never done anything remotely like it the past. He suggested recent weight loss may have reduced his capacity for alcohol and insisted he never took anything stronger. “I’ve never ever touched drugs in my life. I’ve never even touched cannabis.”

He said he had thought about suicide, especially seeing how devastating the revelations had been for his wife and children. The family had moved out of their Cork home to avoid unwanted attention and the broadcaster, well-known for his own strong opinions, expected the public to give him a hard time when he returned.

However, although he has been replaced on his Cork 96fm show by a stand-in since last Thursday, he also said he hoped to get back on air soon and was meeting with station bosses about his future in the coming week.

Mr Prendeville, who has hired celebrity lawyer Gerald Kean to represent him, accepted some people might doubt his claim of memory loss but he said he could offer no other version of events. He declined to comment further when contacted by this newspaper.

Mr Kean, meanwhile, said there was no discrepancy between the accounts of the incident given by him and his client. It had appeared the two men differed on events after Mr Kean said in interviews that his client had been drinking in Heathrow while waiting to board the plane, while Mr Prendeville said he had no memory of being at the airport.

Mr Kean clarified last night that his knowledge of what happened in Heathrow came from another member of the group with which Mr Prendeville was travelling.