Corruption case jury discharged

The jury was discharged this afternoon in the case against a former managing director of South Cork Enterprise Board as they could not reach agreement on any of the charges of receiving corrupt payments for securing job creation grants for a company.

Judge Con Murphy thanked the six men and six women of the jury who had spent the previous night at a Cork city hotel.

Their deliberations began at 11.30am yesterday and they were discharged at 3.30pm today having spent a total of almost 12 hours trying to reach a decision in their jury room.

The foreman of the jury told Judge Murphy, in response to his question, that they would not benefit from any further time in trying to reach a verdict.

They had been told that a majority verdict of 10 – 2 would have sufficed, but they could not achieve that on any single count.

In that event, they were instructed to record the word, disagreement, after each count.

James Brennan (aged 59) of Rockgrove, Midleton, Co Cork, denied 14 counts of receiving corrupt payments, totalling IR£4,500 on various occasions between December 10, 1996 and May 20, 1999.

Today was the 13th day of the trial which consisted mainly of detailed documentary evidence.

The case was adjourned until April 15. It will be a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if the case is to go to a re-trial. Today’s jury had not been told that they were in fact the second jury sworn in to hear the case.

In May last year, the same case went to hearing. However, the jury was discharged on the third day of that trial following legal argument.

During the 13-day trial on this occasion at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Tom Creed, senior counsel, compared the alleged offences to ‘bungs’ received by some Premiership soccer managers when dealing with player transfers.

Mr Creed said South Cork Enterprise Board Ltd (SCEB) was a public body and the accused was the managing director at the time.

One of the board’s functions was to support small businesses who employ less than 10 employees. Such companies applied for employment grants to fund extra employees to grow their business.

He said the 14 charges related to seven incidents in which it was alleged that the defendant received a total of IR£4,500 in corrupt payments.

The charges were brought under legislation including the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 and the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995.

Brennan testified that he received no such payments.