‘Slab’ Murphy opens appeal to tax evasion conviction

Prominent republican Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy was found guilty of evading tax his brother had already paid, his lawyers have submitted to the Court of Appeal.

The 67-year-old, whose farm at Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, Co Louth, straddles the border with Northern Ireland, had pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to nine charges of failing to comply with tax laws in the Republic for 1996/97 to 2004.

The three-judge Special Criminal Court found Murphy guilty on all counts and he was jailed for 18 months on February 26.

Opening an appeal yesterday against the conviction, John Kearney, defending, told the court that “all the tax” Murphy was found guilty of evading “was paid” by his brother Patrick Murphy.

He said it was “staggering” the authorities came after Thomas Murphy for tax his brother Patrick had paid. His brother was “around every corner, he’s under every stone. He’s constantly in this case,” said Mr Kearney.

Patrick Murphy had “wrongly” applied for more income by increasing the number of herds he had so as to increase his “take on the grant”, said Mr Kearney.

The defence’s case from day one was that the farm payments were for a single farm with three herds. “Extra herds, extra money,” said Mr Kearney.

He said the Special Criminal Court’s 10-page verdict was “inadequately brief” for a 32-day trial in a “document-heavy circumstantial case”. He said the non-jury court erred in dealing with this as a straightforward case narrowing down to a number of core issues.

Mr Kearney said the Special Criminal Court stated in its verdict there were a number of documents an expert found to have been signed by Murphy but that there was no such evidence.

For the court to short-circuit that evidence into this possible finding of fact was “astounding”, he said.

Murphy has appealed his conviction on 48 grounds in seven core areas. The hearing is expected to last three days.