Councillor ordered to pay €100-a-week compensation

A county councillor who appeared in an RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme has been ordered to pay a compensation order after a court heard how he dined in expensive Dublin restaurants and spent lavishly on clothing.

John O’Donnell, from Donegal, said his “good name” had been ruined as he defended a decision to stop paying money to a woman whose foot he drove over more than 16 years ago.

German woman Petra Kucklick, of Mill Cottage, Rooskey, Creeslough, sued Mr O’Donnell for an outstanding €33,000 debt from a personal injury claim.

Letterkenny Civil Court heard the councillor had paid €7,600 in 2009 but then stopped making any payments despite a court order.

Ms Kucklick’s counsel, Laura O’Reilly, said she had been awarded personal injury compensation in 2008 and that Mr O’Donnell had stopped paying €200 per week in 2009.

Judge Paul Kelly heard Ms O’Reilly detail what she said was extravagant expenses.

She said updated bank statements showed Mr O’Donnell spent €960 at Watson’s Menswear in Letterkenny in December.

He spent hundreds on meals at Café en Seine in December and Peploes in January, where the bill was €350, she alleged, and that he spent hundreds of euro at hotels and bars in Donegal over the same period.

Mr O’Donnell said the menswear bill included presents for family and that the food bills involved him paying bills and a number of friends paying him cash.

As a result of the case, said Mr O’Donnell, he had been left with no option but to apply for bankruptcy.

Judge Paul Kelly said he was satisfied that while Mr O’Donnell did have more money in the past that he was not permitted under the law to punish him retrospectively. He ordered Mr O’Donnell to pay €100 per week to Ms Kucklick. “If that isn’t met I will take an entirely different view of the matter,” said the judge.