The High Court has awarded €1.93 million damages and legal costs - estimated at hundreds of thousands of euro - to Co Donegal man Frank Shortt arising from his wrongful conviction and imprisonment on charges of allowing the sale of drugs at his former nightclub in Inishowen.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, said yesterday that the case of Mr Shortt had involved an "outrageous abuse of power" by some gardaí and the circumstances of the case had led to him including €50,000 as exemplary damages in the award.
The amount of damages awarded was less than expected by some and may be appealed to the Supreme Court. Any appeal is unlikely to be heard until some time next year.
In a reserved judgment following a hearing to assess the amount of damages, Mr Justice Finnegan said Mr Shortt's suffering could fairly be said to have spanned a period of 12 years. Mr Shortt had entered prison at the age of 60, when it must be expected that the rigours of prison life would have a greater effect upon him than on a young man.
While in prison, he had six other charges hanging over him with a real possibility of being convicted and having a further lengthy prison sentence imposed upon him, the judge noted. That threat was not removed until 2000.
Mr Shortt, now aged 70, had sued the Garda Commissioner and the State. He had been made a "payment on account" of €375,000 by the High Court on July 29th last, pending final judgment. That sum was included in yesterday's award.
His lawyers had claimed Mr Shortt was "destroyed" as a result of being wrongfully convicted and jailed on charges of allowing the sale of drugs at his Point Inn premises, Quigley's Point.
Damages were awarded yesterday under a number of headings. They included €806,221 for losses related to the Point Inn and a caravan park which Mr Shortt had owned. A sum of €550,000 was awarded for loss of profits, net of tax, at the Point Inn.
General damages of €500,000 under the Criminal Procedure Act (relating to the period spent in jail) were also included.
After Mr Shortt's second trial, he decided to sell the Point Inn premises but the building was destroyed by fire in March 1995.
A receiver was appointed to his caravan park in September 1995. The receiver sold the Point Inn and caravan park for £152,000 and VAT. After the International Fund for Ireland (which had approved a grant for the Point Inn) and creditors and costs were discharged, there was nothing for Mr Shortt, the court said.
Eoin McGonigal SC, who was with Hugh Mohan SC and barrister Desmond Murphy, for Mr Shortt, had submitted that his client was effectively a destroyed person, internally to himself and externally to the community.
Mr Shortt, a married father of five, with an address at Redcastle, Co Donegal, served 27 months in prison, including some months in "inhumane" conditions in a cell measuring 3.04m (10ft) by 2.13m (7ft), his lawyers said.
He was convicted initially in 1995. His first appeal against his conviction was rejected but after his release in 1998 he pursued the matter and secured a fresh appeal. In November 2000, the DPP informed the Court of Criminal Appeal that he was not opposing Mr Shortt's appeal.
In July 2000, that court decided that Mr Shortt had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. It ruled the miscarriage was on grounds of newly discovered facts - the deliberate suppression of material by two gardaí, Det Garda Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon. Both were formerly attached to Buncrana station and were involved in Operation Spider, an undercover Garda operation into alleged drug-dealing at the Point Inn in 1992.
Dealing with general damages yesterday, the judge referred to the major elements in Mr Shortt's account for which he required to be compensated. They included the effect upon him of being charged, tried, convicted and imprisoned in terms of stress and anxiety; and the 27 months for which he was in prison, taking into account the conditions under which the sentence was served.
They also included the effect on him physically and mentally and in terms of personal injury of his imprisonment, his exclusion from family life and the effect upon his reputation and standing in his community. Mr Shortt was an accountant and his conviction had led to his membership of his institute being under threat.
Mr Justice Finnegan said there was an "outrageous abuse of power" by Garda officers. Evidence was planted and perjured evidence was relied upon. It had not been expected by gardaí that Mr Shortt would be sent to prison but when he was they took no step to remedy the situation.
The judge said he was satisfied the circumstances of the case fully justified an award of substantial exemplary damages which he put at €50,000.
