A SOLICITOR who allegedly received cheques totalling €35,000 related to a settlement of a child sex-abuse action allegedly told the abuse victim he would only get about €5,000, it has been claimed before the High Court.
Denis McMahon, a partner in McMahon O’Brien solicitors with offices at Henry Street, Limerick, and Pembroke Road, Dublin, is facing charges of misconduct over failing to lodge two cheques to the account of a client who brought proceedings over alleged sexual abuse when he was a child at an institution run by a religious order.
It is alleged the cheques were a settlement cheque for €25,000, plus another for €10,000 related to legal costs of the case.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, yesterday granted orders directing Mr McMahon to deliver up two cheques in relation to a settlement, plus the file relating to the client in question.
While it was important to point out the court had only heard one side of the story, the judge said he considered, after reading the legal documents, this was a “grave” matter.
The Law Society had applied yesterday morning ex-parte (one side only represented) to the court seeking orders entitling it to get immediate possession of the client file and the two cheques.
The case was adjourned to the afternoon to allow the orders be served on Mr McMahon and to allow the Law Society get the file and cheques from him.
When it resumed, the court heard the orders had been served but the file had still not been obtained.
David Sutton SC, for Mr McMahon, complained he had not been given the Law Society affidavits concerning the matter and had not been in a position to answer the allegations. Following another adjournment, the affidavits were supplied to Mr Sutton and lawyers for Mr McMahon later brought the file to court.
The judge then adjourned the matter to next Thursday, stressing the court had yet to hear from Mr McMahon and that he would have a full opportunity to respond to the allegations.
He refused a request from Mr Sutton to continue a reporting restriction preventing the naming of Mr McMahon. The judge had imposed the restriction earlier but refused to continue it, saying he was not aware of any precedent whereby he could do so.
Earlier, Paul Anthony McDermott, for the Law Society, said the application arose when the client in this case had a conversation with another solicitor in the McMahon law firm.
The conversation alerted the client who contacted the religious institution which he had sued and was told two cheques had already been sent to the solicitor, counsel said.
The client then contacted Mr McMahon who told him the case was going to be very difficult to settle but he (the solicitor) might be able to settle it for a very small ex-gratia payment, Mr McDermott said.
The client had already pledged whatever settlement he was going to get to a financial institution with whom he had debts, so was never actually going to get the money into his hand, counsel said.
Mr McMahon actually wrote a letter to both the client and the financial institution involved saying there was going to be a small settlement, but this was a “positive untruth” and he concealed the fact that money he had received was going to be diverted to somewhere else, Mr McDermott said.
The court also heard Mr McMahon has been summoned to appear before the Law Society’s Complaints and Client Relations Committee in relation to the same matter on July 12th.