Murphy `was not on assault charge'

Mr Joseph Murphy jnr was never charged with or convicted of assault as alleged by Mr James Gogarty, the Flood tribunal has been told.

He was charged with malicious damage after a "silly and trivial" prank with a fire extinguisher at a Dublin hotel after a rugby match.

Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Murphy group, said Mr Gogarty, former senior executive with Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering, had twice made a serious allegation about Mr Murphy which was "particularly abhorrent" and could do a lot of damage to his name and reputation.

If the allegation of assaulting a woman was allowed to continue, it would "attach a stigma". It had caused him great distress and people had mentioned it to him.

After debate between counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Gallagher SC, and Mr Cooney over whether the issue could be introduced without prior notice, the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Flood, said he would allow him "on this occasion only" to outline the facts.

The chairman said he had no wish to see anybody's reputation "unfairly tarnished". He would have to rely on Mr Cooney, "as a member of the senior bar", to be absolutely fair in outlining the facts.

Mr Cooney said the incident took place in the Berkeley Court hotel after an international rugby match between Ireland and New Zealand in November 1989.

The hotel on international rugby match evenings was "packed to the door, there is an air of conviviality and a certain amount of drink".

Mr Murphy jnr, in a "silly prank", took a fire extinguisher and "caused it to go off". Some of the water from the extinguisher landed on the coat "of a lady guest" which was on a chair.

The hotel management was "incensed" by the incident and insisted that Mr Murphy be charged with malicious damage to the coat. He appeared the next Monday morning at the District Court.

The district judge, having heard all the evidence - including that of a security guard who was an off-duty garda - concluded that what happened was a "trivial incident". He applied the Probation Act and Mr Murphy was required to pay £100 to the poor box.

There was no question of assaulting a woman and no question of him being convicted for assaulting a woman. "It was a silly and trivial incident which Mr Gogarty has misinterpreted," Mr Cooney said.