This article is from page 13 of the 2008-07-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
THE summations to the jury of the evidence brought in the trial of Pas- chal Carmody were lengthy and took almost an entire day in court.
The two senior counsel involved with the case had the job of summa- rising the case in terms of evidence for their respective sides heard over five weeks.
Beginning the summation before the jury of 11, Denis Vaughan-Buck- ley for the prosecution said that they ‘can not decided these cases based on sympathy for the accused or sympa- thy for the alleged victims. You must base your decision on the evidence you have heard and that alone.”
He told jurors that they had heard “evidence of a number of patients
who have done extremely well. But you have to decide on the three cases you have before you. You have heard evidence that he (Carmody) put his hand on Conor O’Sullivan’s shoulder and told him ‘Ill cure your cancer or at least keep you alive”.
He said that Carmody had said in direct evidence that he had been trained in PDT as an undergraduate in University College Galway “but there was no training in PDT treat- ment at UCG at the time he was an undergraduate”, the prosecutor said.
In Carmody’s defence, Pat Mar- rinan SC said that some of the wit- nesses whom it might have been ben- eficial for the jury to hear could not prom meellem me
Mark Hadden, who had been a pro- ponent of Carmody’s and had lived
several years after being treated by him had passed away just before the trial. Despite there having been evi- dence that he had met some of the pa- tients involved in the cases, this was “not declared upfront. Why when this was man who had had such a positive experience with Dr Carmo- dy why were they trying to cover that up? Why did the fact that he had met these people have to be dragged from IW STomAW ALB OCerstsonc ei
He told the jurors that the families of the cancer victims were under emotional strain. “Anyone who has been close to someone who is dy- ing of cancer knows that days flow into weeks and everything becomes a blur. It is not an event that you can recall as a day-to-day experience.”
He said that all of the patients,
without exception, had misinterpret- ed what their consultants had said to them prior to coming to Carmody.
“Were they told by their oncolo- gists that they were all clear or was that what they wanted to hear?”
He told the jury that the case “is about fraud. It is for you to judge, having in mind that he has served for 30 years as a doctor, having seen the people who took the stand on his behalf and testified from their hearts, you must judge, is that man a fraud- ster?”