DPP must decide whether to re-enter corruption charge

COURT SKETCH:THE DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions will decide in the coming weeks whether to re-enter the corruption charge against George Redmond on which the jury in his trial disagreed yesterday.

What Mr Redmond once referred to as "the sword of Damocles" will thus remain over his head until next month at least, when prosecution lawyers indicate what course of action they intend to take.

However, given the length of previous proceedings against him and the failure in two trials to sustain a guilty verdict that stuck, not to mention his advanced age - he will turn 84 next month - it seems unlikely the DPP will elect to roll this ball uphill yet again. The act under which he could still face charges dates back to 1889.

A liar according to his own counsel and corrupt according to the planning tribunal, Mr Redmond has nonetheless managed to emerge from lengthy and repeated trips to the Four Courts with the rest of his good name intact.

Since Thursday, when the jury was sent out to consider its verdict, he had passed his time dipping into a well-thumbed copy of a book on Christian doctrine. Apparently, it provided an insight into the meaning of an oath, and that in turn explained how he had lied off oath to gardaí but told the truth on oath when he was before the tribunal.

George being George, he couldn't resist nattering to the waiting journalists on typically Redmondesque subjects - the rising cost of groceries and tradesmen and his record on Dublin City Council. He even gave me a list of the land he had bought for parks while he was assistant city and county manager. And he expressed his fear at the prospect of being sent again to jail in Cloverhill, where he spent almost a year until an earlier conviction was quashed.

When it eventually came, it was a strange sort of ending to a decade spent under investigation by the tribunal and the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Just before lunchtime, the jury returned to the court for a final time and the foreman announced that they were unable to agree a verdict on the first charge. Mr Redmond removed his headphones and turned to his lawyers with a quizzical expression.

Thirty minutes earlier, the jury had found him not guilty of a second corruption-related charge. The signs were good and some of the tension seemed to lift from the permatanned lines of his face.

Now, as Judge Joseph Matthews quizzed the foreman on the jury's differences, Mr Redmond's eyebrow arched steeply and he cupped his chin in his hand to follow the discussion more closely.

He needn't have worried; the foreman said they had reached a "minor majority" decision but it wasn't the 10-1 majority required by the court. The judge announced he was free to go.

Mr Redmond, who has always travelled alone on his court visits, rang home with the good news and told journalists he was relieved at the outcome.

After a quick meeting with his lawyers, he ambled off to take the bus to Castleknock and what he hopes will be a quiet retirement.