Jury hears details of Carmody’s garda interviews

PHOTODYNAMIC therapy given to two terminally ill cancer patients by Paschal Carmody “was merely an excuse to extract large sums of cash from them knowing that the treatment would be of little benefit”.

That was the charge made by Detective Garda Philip Ryan in an interview with Carmody in April 2006, read out in court yesterday.

In a separate interview with the gardaí in 2006, Carmody denied benefiting financially from the PDT treatment administered to patients at his East Clinic.

Carmody received payments of €207,156 between 2001 and 2002 from a company, PDT Treatment Ltd, which was administering the treatment at a building adjacent to the clinic.

In the trial at Ennis Circuit Court, Carmody, aged 62, of Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, Co Clare, denies defrauding family members of two cancer patients of €16,554 at the East Clinic in Killaloe in 2001-2.

Carmody has pleaded not guilty to seven deception charges totalling €9,610 in relation to defrauding Derek and Christina O’Sullivan concerning the treatment given under false pretences to their son, Conor, aged 15, on dates between July and October 2002.

Carmody has also pleaded not guilty to obtaining by deception €6,944 from John Sheridan, of Kells, Co Kilkenny, in November 2001 through the administration of PDT.

In an interview with Det Garda Ryan, Carmody said the PDT was administered to Conor “in the interests of easing discomfort and prolonging life or better”.

Christina O’Sullivan has told the jury Carmody told Conor on July 9, 2002 that he would cure his cancer or at worst keep him alive. Conor died that November.

The case continues.