24th January 2022
No sooner has one year ended than a new one begins with another lively virtual broadcast with Seamus Gunn on the Greg Hughes show. The opening topic was the highlighting of the Pat Hickey ticket touting case from Brazil which was in the headlines midweek with 3 of the charges being dropped against Pat Hickey, Kevin Mallon, and Barbara Carnieri. Our contributor pointed out that the matter dated back to 2016 when there was a media frenzy around the arrest of Pat Hickey who was then the President of the Olympic Council or Ireland under an allegation of ticket touting together with his co-accused Kevin Mallon and Barbara Carnieri. Seamus Gunn made the point that the decision had been published as far back as the 18th of October 2021 but had only now come into the public domain in Ireland. He said that the unusual expression of “extinction of punishabality” was the justification for the dropping of 3 charges which he said were more minor to the more significant charges which carried penalties of 3-8 years imprisonment. He explained that the charges relating to the use of the logo, tax evasion and personal selling of tickets were all discarded. He made the point that this matter has been trundling along for upwards of 6 years, he expressed some doubt as to whether there was an appetite to see the prosecutions through. Meanwhile Pat Hickey has a bail bond of € 410,000.00. In relation to the accused’s appearing in Court, he said that if they had to appear in person there was to be an 8-month notice period. He said that in such circumstances in this jurisdiction where one’s liberty was at risk; the accused would be in Court. He said that it was recognised that the Courts had an obligation to ensure litigation is concluded in a timely manner which was far from the case in these prosecutions. He explained that the more serious charges of organising the ticket sales together with the larceny charge remained with criminal organisation charges and that these would now have to be addressed and a date set for hearing, which had not occurred. It was likely that this case shall be revisited in the coming year.
The Q&A session that followed can be listened to below.