A legal executive has taken a High Court action alleging she was defamed by her former solicitor employer.
The court was told solicitor Mr Donal B. O'Connell, South Mall, Cork, had made untrue and scandalous claims about Ms Fiona Hennessy, and spoken words to the effect she was incompetent and had mishandled money.
Ms Hennessy (41), Walterstown, Cobh, Co Cork, claims that during the summer of 1996 the defendant spoke words to a number of people which effectively meant Ms Hennessy was to blame for the mess his office was in, including missing money.
She claims that on one occasion in July 1996, Mr O'Connell told Mr Jeremiah Cahill and Ms Eileen Cahill to go to Ms Hennessy immediately and ask her why a £9,500 cheque was lodged through a London bank. She claims the innuendo was that she had improperly given to the Cahills money belonging to Mr O'Connell's company of solicitors, Joseph Morissey and Company, and that she was responsible for having reduced the financial affairs of the company to a mess. She also alleged that Mr O'Connell had spoken words which implied she had stolen money from the company.
After she left Mr O'Connell's company in early September 1996, she claims Mr O'Connell spoke to Father Michael Twohig, a retired parish priest, of Donoughmore, Co Cork, to the effect that Ms Hennessy would not be a suitable person for employment in a law office. She claims Mr O'Connell had said the Incorporated Law Society had told Mr O'Connell it regarded her as being not suitable for employment in a law office. She also claims that in 1998 Mr O'Connell told another man she was "a bitch" who stole £3,000 from him.
The defence denies the claims.
Yesterday, Mr Nicholas Butler SC, for Ms Hennessy, said the conversation with Father Twohig had come via a telephone call from Mr O'Connell who wanted his message relayed to a Father William Birmingham. Father Birmingham was a brother of Mr Matt Birmingham, a solicitor who was then Ms Hennessy's employer.
Mr Butler said his client had beguworking for Mr O'Connell in 1990 but in 1996 things began to go wrong and her world was shattered by the series of allegations made against her by Mr O'Connell. These were "untrue and scandalous" claims.
Mr James Cahill, Cobh, Co Cork , a supermarket owner, said his family had remortgaged a property and had paid Ms Hennessy £6,000 in late May of 1996 while she was still working with Mr O'Connell.
He said she was very professional and trustworthy and he had had no problems up to the time she left Mr O'Connell's employment later in 1996. Mr Cahill said Mr O'Connell failed to close the sale of the property.
The case resumes today.