FORMER GP Paschal Carmody is not the conman the prosecution is suggesting but a man who has given his life to the treatment of illnesses of the young and old, his defence counsel argued yesterday.
Patrick Marrinan SC was making his closing argument in the trial of Mr Carmody (62), Ballcuggeran, Killaloe, Co Clare, at Ennis Circuit Court.
Mr Carmody denies defrauding family relatives of two terminally ill cancer patients of €16,554 at the East Clinic in Killaloe in 2001-2002 concerning the Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) treatment given to the two.
Seven of the nine charges relate to the late 15-year-old Co Wexford teenager, Conor O’Sullivan, who died from an aggressive form of bone cancer in November 2002.
The remaining two relate to John Sheridan (58), Kells, Co Kilkenny, who died from liver cancer in November 2002.
Counsel for the State, Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, said Conor O’Sullivan’s mother, Christina, recounted a meeting with Mr Carmody on July 9th, 2002, where she recalled Mr Carmody telling Conor, “I’ll cure your cancer and if I don’t cure you of cancer, at worst I’ll keep you alive”.
Mr Vaughan Buckley said there was ample evidence for the jury to safely conclude that Mr Carmody is guilty of all the counts before the court.
Mr Marrinan told the jury there was not a suggestion from the defence that the deceased patients’ relatives “are fabricating or making up their stories or that they are lying”. He said: “That is the not case being made. At the end of the day, were you to find Mr Carmody not guilty, it isn’t in any way a slur on them.
“It doesn’t in any way suggest that they are not telling the truth. All it says [is] that you are not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that what they said is accurate. Or that what was said was said in circumstances that involved dishonesty and fraud. I want to make that abundantly clear.”
He said the evidence relating to the counts concerning Conor O’Sullivan “is vague and inconsistent”.
He told the jury: “This case is not some trial about PDT treatment, whether it works or it doesn’t. What this case is about is whether if in conjunction with other treatments it led Paschal Carmody to believe that this was a treatment worth pursuing with his patients. It is clear he had a very sound basis for doing so.”
Mr Marrinan said: “Maybe Mr Carmody shouldn’t have been treating cancer patients at all because he is only a GP . . . Tell that to the other nine cancer patients of Mr Carmody’s who were examined by Prof [Neville] Krasner who said that the results were remarkable.”
Mr Marrinan said for the people visiting Mr Carmody at the East Clinic it was the last resort. He said: “Maybe he should have turned them all away.”
Mr Marrinan said Mr Carmody is observing that these desperate people are coming to him on their last legs – and that he is getting some results. He added: “He is not hyping it up in the witness box – he was frank with you and said that he had a lot of failures.
“But if he has 1 per cent, 2 per cent, 10 per cent success rate, he is almost morally obliged to offer the treatment . . . He has gone beyond the call of duty in many respects. He has given his life to the treatment of illness of the young and old . . . That person is the not the conman the prosecution is suggestion Paschal Carmody is.”
The trial continues today.
