This article is from page 13 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
RTE 2FM presenter Gerry Ryan was called to give evidence to feed Sha- ron Collins’ ego, according to the prosecution, who said his testimony wasn’t relevant.
Mr Ryan gave evidence at the trial, on behalf of the defence, last Tues- day, in relation to an email Sharon Collins wrote to his show in April, PAU ey
During an eight-minute spell in the witness box, Mr Ryan said to the best of his recollection, he personally did not come into contact with a letter emailed by Sharon Collins.
“To the best of my recollection, no Such document was received, not to me,” he said.
He said that gardai never made any enquiries with him in relation to the letter.
He explained that he received up to 2,000 emails a month for his show and a filtering system operated whereby some letters were broadcast and others were not.
The producer of the Gerry Ryan show, Siobhan Hough, told the court she did not recollect receiving Sha- ron Collins’ letter.
In her closing speech to the jury on Thursday, Ms Ni Raifeartaigh noted that Sharon Collins admitted composing the email, but wasn’t sure if she had sent it to the Gerry Ryan show. “Why on earth was Gerry Ryan brought into the court to say he didn’t see it? Does it matter whether it made it to Gerry Ryan or not? What matters is she wrote it,’ she said.
“In any event, we got the confirma- tion from RTE. Gardai spoke to the IT person, but no, the defence had to pull in Mr Gerry Ryan, who said, ‘I get so many emails but I didn’t see DOD IOMO) soma) OLoMNCT- BIER
“That is feeding the ego of Sharon Collins. She likes to be centre of at- tention. She wants Gerry Ryan in there, giving evidence, even though it bears no relevance,” she said.
However, Michael Bowman, BL, for Sharon Collins, disputed this.
He said, “Much play has been made and unfairly so about Gerry Ryan coming in to give evidence. It has been painted as an unnecessary stunt. I can’t see why it’s fair to say it’s feeding the ego of Sharon Col- Thakseae