Defiant Dunne ‘is not afraid to face justice’
The businessman claimed the report contained “lies” about him, in particular in relation to the conclusion that he attempted with Michael Lowry to influence a rent review that would have doubled the rent and value of one of his former properties, Marlborough House, at the expense of the taxpayer.
“I am not a corrupt person and if anyone can prove that I did anything corrupt in that Marlborough deal, or in any other deal in fact, they should put me where I should be — behind bars. I am not afraid to face justice.”
A furious Mr Dunne told RTÉ radio’s Joe Duffy that he believed medical reports detailing for the tribunal his trouble remembering clearly events around the mid-1990s period in question had not been given due weight.
Mr Dunne, who was an IRA kidnap victim in 1981, lost his involvement in the family business, Dunnes Stores, following his arrest in Florida after he apparently threatened to jump off a hotel balcony while high on cocaine in 1992. A call girl who was with him at the time feared for his life and raised the alarm.
“I think it’s a bloody disgrace that a man like Mr Moriarty, who knows that I suffer from my own personal tortures, would choose to pick on someone like me,” he complained.
“I have attempted suicide. I was on drugs. I was very unbalanced. I was in a very, very dark place.” He added that he was still under psychiatric care and accused Judge Moriarty of ignoring his situation. “He publicly attempts to assassinate me by calling me corrupt.”
Judge Moriarty, however, specifically states in his report that he took Mr Dunne’s mental health into consideration. “The Tribunal has had regard to medical reports forwarded on behalf of Mr Dunne suggesting that this recollection and capacity had been adversely affected by his kidnapping and other experiences,” he states.
“However, having carefully appraised his evidence on the several occasions that he testified, the Tribunal has no hesitation in finding that, as in earlier instances, Mr Dunne remained and astute businessman who was fully aware of what he was doing.”
Mr Dunne said he would bounce back from this latest knock. “I have crawled out of darker holes. I am made of stronger stuff,” he said.
“I am going to get on with my life and build my reputation again for the second or third or fourth time in my life and prove to people that the Tribunal made an incorrect finding on me.” He admitted, however: “It will be a slow process.”
