A Kenmare Resources executive who sleepwalked naked to a colleague’s bedroom could have dealt with the matter privately by resigning from a post which involved him working directly with her, the High Court heard today.
Donal Kinsella (67) could have continued on in his role as deputy chairman of Kenmare and as a director once he resigned as chairman of the company’s audit committee, Kenmare’s managing director Michael Carvill told the court.
Mr Carvill said he thought it was a reasonable request to ask Mr Kinsella to resign as audit committee chairman because that role involved him working with Deirdre Corcoran, the company secretary.
Her bedroom door was opened three times by the sleepwalking Mr Kinsella in the early hours of May 9th, 2007 in a mine accommodation block in Moma, Mozambique.
The court has heard Mr Kinsella had also sleepwalked in other parts of the block where the Kenmare executives were staying.
Mr Carvill said Mr Kinsella was only asked to resign as chair, not from the committee itself and not from the company, simply to allay Ms Corcoran’s reasonable concerns about having to work with him in light of the distress she had suffered over the sleepwalking incident.
The company had found itself in a “terrible situation” where an unfortunate matter could have been quickly dealt with had Mr Kinsella responded to the request to resign, Mr Carvill said.
That would have allowed everyone to save face and the matter could have been dealt with privately, he said. Resignation was a very easy option compared to letting the whole thing “blow up in our faces”.
Mr Carvill was giving evidence on the fourth day of Mr Kinsella’s action against Kenmare alleging he was libelled as a result of a July 2007 press release which stated the company was seeking Mr Kinsella’s resignation from the audit committee in light of “the incident” in Mozambique.
Arising from publication of that release, Mr Kinsella claims he became a national and international “laughing stock” over sexual impropriety allegations of which he had earlier been exonerated by an independent internal inquiry. Kenmare denies the claims.
The case was adjourned this afternoon until Tuesday after public relations consultant Jim Milton, who started giving evidence today, was unable to continue due to becoming unwell.
Bill Shipsey SC, for Kenmare, who had called Mr Milton, said he would be able to resume his evidence on Tuesday and was the last witness in the case.
Earlier, Michael Carvill told Mr Shipsey Mr Kinsella’s claim the company was “out to shaft him” was “paranoia and completely untrue.” The company, quoted on the stock exchange and heavily dependent on institutional investors, was concerned about any adverse publicity, he said.
Mr Carvill said he had decided it was time to brief the company's public relations consultant, Mr Milton, when John Kierans - editor of the Irish Daily Mirror and described by Mr Kinsella as a friend of his - rang seeking to speak to Ms Corcoran.
Mr Carvill said he was concerned publicity in the Mirror would be damaging to the company. The company was also concerned Mr Kinsella had threatened to go to the press with allegations of clandestine payments to board directors, which allegations were strongly denied, he said.
Cross-examined by Eoin McCullough SC, for Mr Kinsella, Mr Carvill disagreed the press release as issued did not give the “bare facts”. He, his fellow directors and Mr Milton, did not want to go into detail about the Mozambique incident because they thought it would be damaging to everybody concerned, he said.
He disagreed it was misleading for the release not to say that Mr Kinsella had been acquitted of any sexual impropriety.
In his evidence, Mr Milton said the release was issued to the Irish Daily Mirror, which did not run the story, and to the business desks of the Irish Independent and The Irish Times, which did.
The media works in real time and it was his firm belief there would be articles in the following days’ papers and in media reports which would set the agenda and it would then be difficult to set out the facts of what was going on, Mr Milton said.
Given the nature of the Mirror and the information he had received, Mr Milton said he had thought they were going to deal “with fairly lurid stories”.
The case continues.