Accused tells Waterford court she is ‘not guilty of anything’ in deception trial

The trial of fraud-accused Catherine O’Brien continued on Thursday, July 10, at Waterford Circuit Court.

The jury of seven women and five men heard hours of direct evidence by the defendant from the witness box.

Her defence counsel, Simon Donagh, BL, spoke to her about the complete timeline of her correspondence with the complainant John Blake.

Ms O’Brien told the court at the prompt of her barrister that she was “not guilty of anything”. She said she had known Mr Walsh from childhood because he was “friendly” with her father.

Ms O’Brien (47), of An Grianan, Ballinroad, Dungarvan, stands accused of three charges of making gain or causing loss by deception contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 against complainant John Blake. She denies the charges.

The court heard that she is currently a carer for her elderly uncle but at the time in question she was involved in foaling mares.

She and Mr Walsh travelled to France in 2015 to find a stallion but it wasn’t until 2018 that they purchased thoroughbred stallion Shakeel from Aga Khan.

Shakeel had had a successful racing career, becoming a group one horse, before being injured and subsequently retired to stud.

Ms O’Brien and Mr Walsh sold breeding rights in Shakeel for €7,000 each.

It was expected that if the horse sired race winners, this would go up but until then Ms O’Brien said they wanted to keep him “accessible” for “ordinary people” who wanted to get into horse breeding.

Ms O’Brien told the court that when she met Mr Blake on Plenty O' Fish, she was only looking for a “pen pal situation”. 

Mr Blake invested €20,000 in Shakeel and had two breeding rights, which Ms O’Brien said carried zero risk as they could be sold.

Ms O’Brien also told the court that she had arranged for Mr Blake to see the horse but she was not present at the meeting, which was hosted by Mr Walsh.

Classic Thoroughbreds

She confirmed that documents for the breeding rights were drawn up by a solicitor and carried the 'Classic Thoroughbreds’ syndicate logo, setting out the terms of the agreement.

The agreement entitled Mr Blake to two nominations a year. Ms O’Brien said: “I was just the person to sign on behalf of Classic Thoroughbreds.” 

She told the court that Mr Walsh was the "main person" in Classic Thoroughbreds and that she received a fee of €1,500 for every breeding right sold. She said of Mr Blake and another potential investor: “I didn’t really mind whether they bought breeding rights or not.” 

Ms O’Brien said that she donated €100 of every right sold to the Hope Foundation, and that her children had travelled to India to help with the charity.

The court heard how the parties discussed buying a broodmare for Shakeel. Ms O’Brien confirmed the document read ‘Lingreville’ on the top, but the document was actually in relation to a horse called Shamalana. In early 2018, Shamalana was bought and brought to Ireland. Ms O’Brien said that she did not make a call to Five Star Bloodstock Transport Ltd to arrange the transport. [Liz Lynch of Five Star Bloodstock Ltd previously told the court that the transport was arranged over the phone by a woman named ‘Amy Power’.]

Colt foal

The defence went through the roughly 18 months of messages between Ms O’Brien and Mr Blake. In the messages, Mr Blake constantly asks about Ms O’Brien’s well-being and is very supportive and complimentary towards her.

She sent him updates about his "mare", describing how she was successfully covered by Shakeel and was expecting a foal. The gestation period appeared to last over 12 months. She sent him a video and photo of a colt foal, which Mr Blake understood to be the foal of his mare Lingreville. Ms O’Brien repeatedly confirmed in court that the mare was named Shamalana. She said that she had previously referred to the mare as ‘Lingreville’ because of the name written down on the pedigree document by John Walsh.

Weeks from hell 

Their correspondence came to an abrupt end in September 2019, when Mr Blake learned that the horse he thought he had purchased, Lingreville, had never left France.

In the weeks and months leading up to that date, Mr Blake made numerous attempts to meet with the defendant and to see what he understood was his mare and his foal. The meetings never took place, due to a variety of health issues suffered by Ms O’Brien, including broken ribs, a virus contracted from foals, back problems and reoccurring shingles.

Ms O’Brien told the court that at that time she had "weeks from hell" due to an "incident" in Wexford. She said that John Walsh had moved from the stud farm in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, to a stud in Wexford, bringing a number of horses with him. 

She said: “There had been an incident with the horses in Wexford. The situation wasn’t very good.” 

In a message sent on August 12, 2019, she wrote to Mr Blake: “John, I’m in terrible trouble and I’d like to talk to you.” 

He replied: “Katie, you’ve been hiding from me for a long time.” 

She wrote: “Whatever happens, you are a nice person and I want to do my best for you.” 

She explained that she had been under a "huge amount of stress" over the "horrible situation in Wexford". 

He wrote back: “I had great faith in you Katie.” 

In court, Ms O’Brien said that at this time: “I had reached an all-time level of low. It was a very terrible time.” 

She said that newspaper articles had come out about the "Wexford situation" and that she was being contacted by journalists.

When asked about the alleged harassment she reported at her house in Dungarvan, Ms O’Brien said that men had been shouting through her letterbox and rattling her side gate before sending her a WhatsApp video message "demanding" €45,000.

Ms O’Brien said that she went to report the incident at Waterford City Garda Station because she "didn’t have a good relationship" with Gardaí in Dungarvan. The case was sent back to Dungarvan because of jurisdiction.

The trial continues.