The Flood tribunal was adjourned briefly yesterday, after Mr James Gogarty became upset and declared he was prepared "to go to Mountjoy" in his effort to "get to the truth".
Mr Gogarty was insisting, despite a ruling to the contrary from Mr Justice Flood, in getting a reference to the content of a UK accountancy journal on the record.
To objections from Mr Garrett Cooney SC for the Murphy group of companies, Mr Gogarty repeated attempts to refer to the content of the article which he said appeared in the journal of the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants.
He insisted that the content of the article was relevant, saying that it had caused him to lose confidence in the JMSE financial controller, Mr Roger Copsey.
Mr Gogarty said the article was brought to his attention by the managing director of JMSE, Mr Frank Reynolds, who, Mr Gogarty claimed, also lost confidence in Mr Copsey as a result of the article.
However, following objections from Mr Cooney, Mr Justice Flood said he could not accept the article into evidence at this time.
When counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Gallagher, attempted to proceed with Mr Gogarty's evidence in relation to a pension scheme, Mr Gogarty again interrupted.
"To be quite candid I can't go on with that until I show you that this document [the article] affected, seriously affected, both mine and Mr Reynolds's relationship with Mr Copsey in pursuance of our work."
Objecting again, Mr Cooney said Mr Gogarty had listened to the discussion which found that the document was inadmissible at that time "and he knows perfectly well that you've [Mr Justice Flood] made a ruling and he is attempting to breach your ruling in order to denigrate somebody".
Mr Gogarty, however, protested that what he was doing was trying to tell the truth "warts and all". "It affects my whole attitude . . . I came in here warts and all. What's Mr Cooney afraid of? What's he afraid of?"
Following an invitation to continue with his evidence, Mr Gogarty said he had "already stated that I was working with very serious reservations about Mr Copsey and so was Frankie Reynolds. That is all I am saying.
"Further to that, that affected my work in the consultancy line because of the findings of the institute of accountants. . ."
Again Mr Justice Flood interrupted to say he had ruled that "that document and that finding is not admissible as evidence here and now".
After Mr Justice Flood refused Mr Gogarty permission to consult his solicitors, Mr Gogarty asked: "Am I in contempt, am I in contempt? Because I'll go up to Mountjoy . . . All I want is the truth, warts and all, and if they are afraid of the truth, warts and all, I can't help that." Following Mr Gogarty's outburst, Mr Justice Flood rose for 10 minutes to allow Mr Gogarty regain his composure.
