No further charges for former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick

His 127-day trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court ended today when Judge John Aylmer told the jury of his decision, revealed yesterday, to direct an acquittal of all 27 charges.

Mr FitzPatrick, 68, had denied misleading Anglo’s auditors about multi-million euro loans linked to him and his family.

Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, told Judge Aylmer that six charges of alleged false accounting between 2002-07 had been severed from this indictment during the first trial by Judge Mary Ellen Ring.

Mr McGinn said that the DPP was now dropping these charges so Mr FitzPatrick will not face trial on these. There are no other outstanding matters relating to the former bank executive.

Judge Aylmer then told Mr FitzPatrick: “You’re now free to go and thank you for your attendance”. Mr FitzPatrick replied: “thank you Judge”.

Yesterday morning, Judge Aylmer gave a lengthy ruling in which he strongly criticised the investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) into the annual practice of refinancing loans linked to Mr FitzPatrick.

He said there was a real risk of an unfair trial because of issues in the investigation, including the “extraordinary” shredding of documents by the ODCE investigator and the coaching of witnesses.

He gave yesterday’s ruling in the absence of the jury, which had been told to return to court today.

Judge Alymer told the jury that he had made a decision that the prosecution had not established a sufficient case to go to the jury.

He told the jurors he was aware that they had given over eight months of their life to the trial process and he wanted them to have a full understanding of his decision to direct them to acquit.

He said that the investigation fell short of that which the accused is entitled and that there were a number of shortcomings.

He said the shortcomings in evidence for each of the charges meant there was an insufficient case.

Declan Brennan, CCC.nuacht