THE solicitor representing a farmer whose prosecution by the Department of Agriculture was described by a judge as “very heavy-handed” and “less than impeccable” has written to the agriculture minister demanding an independent inquiry into the case.
Judge Leonie Reynolds directed the jury to find Douglas Fannin not guilty on charges that he had injected his animals to affect the accuracy of a TB test between March 14 and March 17, 2009. Other charges alleging criminal damage with intent to defraud had previously been withdrawn.
Simon Coveney, the agriculture minister, ordered a review of the case after the judge’s criticism.
The report was written last March but has not been published. The Sunday Times has seen a copy of the report and revealed its findings last week.
Written by Michael Sheridan, the department’s deputy chief veterinary officer, it found no fault with department officials, including Brian Flaherty, the head of its Special Investigations Unit, who testified at the trial.
Advertisement
The report blames the state’s senior counsel for “allegedly” pursuing what it calls an erroneous line of questioning and says the judge may have been “influenced” by “an unsubstantiated allegation” made during the eight-day trial.
Reynolds criticised Flaherty’s attitude as a witness and, on the last day of the trial, adjourned the hearing to allow the state prosecutor, to consult Flaherty about “how he should answer questions”.
Brendan Muldowney, the solicitor who acted for Fannin, a Cavan-based farmer, has rejected the department’s internal report into the affair.
The department sent Muldowney excerpts from the report before making a decision on whether to release it on foot of requests made under the Freedom of Information acts.
Muldowney said he “fundamentally object[s]” to the report’s findings, having had “first hand and forensic knowledge” of the trial, the book of evidence, and “the attitude and demeanour of certain witnesses from the department”.
Advertisement
Muldowney said the report “flies in the face of the verdict” and of Reynolds’s “unambiguous pronouncements”.
“This attitude of unfettered hubris demonstrates the contempt with which the department is treating a decision of the Circuit Court, criticising a learned judge of that court and endeavouring to cast [aspersions] on the lawyers,” Muldowney.
Calling the report “one-sided and secretive”, Muldowney said: “This entire debacle and the lessons to be learnt therefrom coupled with the exigencies of the situation, demand an urgent, unavoidable and immediate inquiry”.
Any such inquiry, he said, must also examine the implications for public health and “the integrity of the system of meat inspection within this state”.
Cattle that the department wrongly accused Fannin of injecting with an unidentified substance, potentially including “slurry”, were seized on March 24, 2009. They were slaughtered the following day by Liffey Meats and entered the food chain.
Advertisement
Muldowney sent copies of his letter to Leo Varadkar, the health minister, Máire Whelan, the attorney-general, and Eileen Creedon, the chief state solicitor.
The trial is estimated to have cost about €100,000.
Fannin has said that he intends to sue the department for damages.