Man pleads guilty to blackmailing former FF Councillor

A man who blackmailed a former Fianna Fáil Councillor using pictures of him allegedly taking cocaine has today entered a guilty plea in the middle stage of his trial.

Wesley Higgins (aged 33) attempted to extort €5,000 from Mr Liam Kelly by threatening to give such pictures to a newspaper.

Higgins, of Dundaniel Road, Kilmore, Coolock had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to demanding money with menaces between August 6 and 12, 2006.

Midway through the trial, after lengthy legal argument, Higgins changed his plea to guilty before the jury. He was remanded on continuing bail after the prosecution said there was no objection to him remaining free until sentencing.

Judge Desmond Hogan set a sentencing date for January 27, next year before thanking the jury and dismissing them. Higgins faces a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Mr Kelly said he had always maintained his innocence and felt “vindicated” by the guilty plea. He said he would not make a further statement until after the sentencing “out of respect for the court”.

The five-day trial was dominated by the lengthy and often heated cross-examination of the former Dublin City Councilor. Mr Kelly repeatedly denied taking cocaine but said he suffered from blackouts due to his alcoholism and can remember little of the night.

Mr Kelly said he represented Finglas Glasnevin on Dublin City Council from 2004 to when he lost his seat in 2009. He told Mr Tony McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, that he knew Higgins “superficially” after meeting him a few times.

In early August 2006, Higgins called him and invited him to a party.

He accepted the invitation because he was an alcoholic and “would have gone anywhere for more drink”. He went to the party with Higgins and an unnamed female and left in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Kelly said Higgins left a message the next night and told him the female they were with at the party had taken photographs of him and wanted money for them.

The message continued that Higgins was acting as a “middleman” and the woman wanted €5,000 for the photos. Higgins added that he needed to be “looked after” as well.

A later message stated the Higgins was having difficulty stopping the woman going to the newspapers with the photographs. A final message added that the pictures showed the councilor snorting cocaine.

On August 8, Mr Kelly was on the way to a function in the Mansion House when Sunday World reporter Eugene Masterson confronted him in the street and asked him to come to his car to view the photos allegedly showing him taking cocaine.

He went to the journalist’s car and identified himself in a photograph of him “inhaling a white powdery substance”.

He said it wasn’t cocaine and that he wanted more time to explain. He later went to the gardaí and made a complaint alleging blackmail.

During a cross examination that lasted three days, Mr Kelly denied repeatedly that he was lying about his version of events and that phone records contradicted his evidence.

Mr Keith Spencer BL, defending, presented a photograph to Mr Kelly which he says showed the witness “crouched over the arm of a couch with what looks to be a mirror or CD case - you’ve a tube to your nose and there’s white powder underneath”.

Mr Kelly replied that he accepts the photograph showed him in a “compromising position” but that he can’t recall its circumstances and that he did not take cocaine.

The witness said he was an alcoholic and suffered from a “blackout” that night.

Mr Spencer said Mr Kelly was using the blackouts as a “convenient explanation” and that his recollection of the night is important because “you are the shaky foundation on which this prosecution is based”.

Counsel then put it to him that at one point the cocaine at the party ran out and Higgins went to get more. He said that once Higgins had left the house other people at the party began making fun of Mr Kelly because he had told them he was a politician and “in Government”.

Counsel said Mr Kelly was anxious for Higgins to return and phone data showed text messages from him to Higgins, stating: “Get me out of here”, “Hurry Wes” and “How are you getting on?”

Mr Kelly replied that these text messages were sent while he was still in the city centre waiting to be picked up by Higgins and taken to the party. He said they had nothing to do with the collection of cocaine.

Counsel also referred to a text received on Higgins’ phone at 5.08 am from “Bill” who he described as a drug dealer. It read: “Come up to me very discreetly, Turn the motor off. Don’t open gate. Jump the wall. Thanks mate.”

Mr Kelly said he has no knowledge of this message.

At points in the cross-examination, Mr Spencer called Mr Kelly an “absolute liar” and said his account was “absolute nonsense”.

“Mr Kelly, you are trying to treat us all like fools”, counsel said. “You are lying, you are an inveterate liar.”