A CASE against a former regional RTÉ radio boss was yesterday dismissed after a judge said it had not been proved he had sent a series of abusive text messages to a work colleague.
Fred Coll (67), a former regional manager of Raidio Na Gaeltachta, had denied sending 21 texts to the 39-year-old woman.
The court heard how a total of 21 text messages were sent between September 21th and 29th, 2006. Following an investigation into the matter, gardaí called to the home of Mr Coll and found two SIM cards in a compartment in his car. Experts discovered the abusive texts, many of a sexual nature, had been sent using one of the SIM cards. Mr Coll of Middletown Gweedore denied he had ever sent any such messages and claimed he was being “fitted up”.
The pair worked together at Forbortha Na Gaeltachta, a local development company in Co Donegal and were working on a project which co-ordinated cookery classes. Defence solicitor Seán Bonner claimed his client was innocent and had not sent any of the “vile” texts. He alleged it was the woman who was sending the texts to herself to get back at Mr Coll because of a row at work.
The woman told the court she did not know what the solicitor was talking about.
“Is it not the case that you referred to the other woman as ‘Miss Important’ and ‘Cock of the North’? Is it not the case that you were jealous of her and that’s why all this has happened,” said Mr Bonner. Mr Bonner said he had studied a number of the abusive text messages allegedly sent to the woman’s private phone and compared them to her own text messages. He said there was a remarkable similarity between the ways she abbreviated words on her own phone and on the abusive texts which had been sent to her.
Judge David Anderson told Glenties District Court the evidence that the texts had been made from a certain SIM card was a double-edged sword. But he said he could not be sure beyond reasonable doubt that it was Mr Coll who sent the texts and dismissed the case.