His bony white hand gripping the witness stand, Mr James Gogarty leaned into the microphone and looked at the rows of lawyers in the hall.
"Have I no interest in this?" he asked, interrupting the legal argument of eminent senior counsel at the Flood tribunal.
"They are laughing at me and they are getting £1,350 a day for laughing at me.
"I came here to the tribunal to get the truth, warts and all, and if I did wrong I am ready to take my place in the queue to pay for it."
It was a dramatic conclusion to an emotional morning of testimony from the 81-year-old former building executive, who proved as firm in mind as he was frail in body.
Five times Mr Gogarty mentioned the pension he believed was his right after 20 years of service to the builder Mr Joseph Murphy snr, and five times he broke into tears at the memory of his treatment by his old friend.
Once, proceedings had to be adjourned as the tribunal's main witness admitted he was getting "worked up".
Another break was needed after he knocked over the glass of water on the stand.
Mr Murphy and Mr Gogarty are both exgardai turned builders, now in their 80s. But while Mr Murphy is a millionaire living in tax exile in Guernsey, Mr Gogarty was working as his "loyal servant" well into his 70s.
Mr Murphy would ring his employee on Christmas Day and summon him to Guernsey the following day. The pair would talk about old times, and Mr Murphy would have "no problem going through a bottle of brandy", Mr Gogarty said.
He told of the lengths he went to to save Mr Murphy's business empire from "a bunch of chancers" who were spending his money "like ewe's milk". There were "covert operations" in which a colleague photocopied vital documents at headquarters of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering in Santry. "Looking back, I'd be better off being 100 miles away from it."
But involve himself he did, and when the rival faction tried to force his resignation, he resisted and helped Mr Murphy fight back. The Murphy grouping succeeded in regaining control, and then sought his resignation again. "I was kicked in the teeth by the people I had fought for," he recalled.
When the witness made his swipe at the lawyers, his own counsel rose to say gravely that it was "now 12.45 p.m.". Legal heads nodded. The chairman agreed it had been "a long morning" and adjourned proceedings until Monday.