Effort made to 'buy' not guilty verdict

A last-minute effort was made to "buy" a not guilty verdict from the foreman of a jury that last month convicted two Tallaght men of handling a stolen car and setting fire to it.

Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told that gardai investigating the allegation had sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Sean Fitzgerald (aged 55), of Dunmore Park, and Jason Black (aged 30), of Tymonville Drive, were found guilty after an eight-day trial and are in custody pending sentence.

"How much would it take to bring in a not guilty verdict?" a representative of the two guilty men, is said to have asked of a prison guard on the penultimate day of the trial.

Prosecuting counsel, Mr Fergal Foley BL, told the court the prison guard was a brother of the jury foreman. Mr Foley said the representative contacted the prison guard on the phone and the information came to light while the jury was deliberating on the charges on June 5 last.

It was not clear at that stage whether the prison officer had relayed the information to his brother, the foreman, and Judge O'Donnell decided not to discharge the jury but let it continue deliberations pending clarity on whether the foreman himself had been contacted.

The jury brought in a guilty verdict a short while later and were excused from jury services. Judge O'Donnell instructed that the matter be investigated and heard at the sentence hearing scheduled for today.

Mr Foley said he was now in a position to inform the court that the foreman had in fact not been contacted, that an investigation had been conducted and a file had been sent to the DPP.

Defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, said the matter of an "improper approach" to a juror was one of delicacy and needed to be investigated further.

He said it hadn't yet been made clear to the defence whether the juror had been interviewed or not, and he needed more information from the prosecution as to how the investigation had been conducted.

Judge O'Donnell acceded to Mr Hartnett's application to adjourn the sentence hearing as the matter was still at the DPP and the court needed further time to study it as well as relevant case law before a decision was made.

The sentence hearing has now been scheduled for July 15 next.

Fitzgerald and Black had pleaded not guilty to two charges each of handling the stolen car and arson on dates unknown between May 20 and May 26, 1999.

The jury returned a majority verdict of 10-2 on both charges against them.

It heard evidence during the eight-day trial that gardaí had mounted a surveillence operation of the two men going in and out of a premises on Sundrive Road where the car had been stored for six days.

The jury heard that faced with surveillence videos which showed the two men setting fire to the car in an alleyway, Fitzgerald said to gardai: "As they say, the camera does not lie."

He denied in cross-examination by prosecuting counsel, Mr Foley, that he had been aware the car was stolen.