Writing expert casts doubt on will signature

A garda handwriting expert told Limerick Circuit Court yesterday she found strong evidence indicating that the signature on the will of a bachelor farmer was not his.

Three sisters of the farmer, Conor O’Donnell of Ballyea, Rathkeale, opposed an application of his executors seeking to have the will proved in solemn form.

One of the two executors of the will and a senior IFA figure were arrested and questioned by gardaí as part of a fraud investigation and no charges were brought.

The application before Judge Brian O’Callaghan by the executors, Josie Ahern, Kilrea, Croagh, and John Chawke, Duxtown House, Rathkeale, was opposed by Mr O’Donnell’s sisters, Christina Greaney, Kilneash, Ardagh; Catherine Anna Kelly, Ower West, Roscahill, Galway, and Margaret O’Donnell, Home Farm Park, Dromcondra, Dublin, who claimed the signature on the will was forged.

Det Garda Geraldine Butler, a handwriting expert based at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park, said as part of the garda investigation, she visited the probate office in Limerick in August 2014 and inspected the original will document of the late Mr O’Donnell. She compared the signature on the will to signatures of Mr O’Donnell which were on AIB and business documents.

Det Garda Butler said the signature on the will lacked fluency; it had been written slowly; there was overwriting in portions of it; there was blunt ending indicating it had been written slowly; there were signs of hesitancy in the writing.

Based on her examination of the signature of the will and samples of Mr O’Donnell’s signature, there was strong evidence to indicate that Conor O’Donnell did not sign the will in question.

Mary Mullane, chairperson of Co Limerick IFA family farm group, of Grange Lower, Newcastle West said she was involved in giving advice to farmers on matters including pensions, government grants, wills and the “passing on of farms”.

She had helped Conor O’Donnell over the years with forms he had to fill out about various farm schemes and had been involved in helping farmers with 20 wills without any issue arising.

Mary Mullane said on May 18, 2012, she got a call from Josie Ahern, a lifelong friend of the deceased, to go to her house and when she got there, Conor O’Donnell was there and had an A4 paper with details written on it about what he had and who he was leaving it to.

The property included land, cash, animals, Kerry Group shares and machinery and he gave details and addresses of the executors he wanted and intended beneficiaries.

Gardai in Newcastle West contacted her in September 2015 and in November she was arrested over the will and taken in an unmarked car to Henry Street station.

Neville O’Donnell, the will’s main beneficiary, said he had a great relationship with his uncle and helped him on the farm.

The case continues today.