Brian Stanley's legal team issue statement following 'sexual ...

27 Oct 2024

Limerick Leader

Solicitors acting on behalf of Laois Offaly TD Brian Stanley have issued a statement following the latest revelations in the controversy which saw him resign from Sinn Féin.

On Saturday the Irish Times reported that Deputy Stanley was facing a finding of gross misconduct on grounds of sexual harassment as the outcome of a Sinn Féin internal inquiry. The newspaper reported that an internal Sinn Féin inquiry into a complaint against the now independent-Republican TD was preparing to make the finding just as he resigned from the party. The Irish Times has claimed to have seen an internal party draft inquiry report and spoken to a woman who made the complaint against Dep Stanley arising from an alleged encounter between the two in October 2023.

The statement in response to the Irish Times article issued on Saturday night said: "When the subject complaint was made, it was asserted to be a confidential process to which all parties were strictly bound by the rules of confidentiality. Our client’s word is his bond, whereas others involved in this matter have clearly breached the bond of confidence, which our client will not so do.

"In the first instance, we repeat what has been acknowledged in the public forum to date, namely that our client has not committed, or been accused of, any criminal act. Insofar as there have been references to possible criminal acts in commentary regarding this inquiry, they were never directed at our client.

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“The report” leaked to your newspaper is, in fact, a draft report, not a final report. Its provisional findings, adverse to our client, are denied fully and our client continues to assert that they are not supported by the evidence presented to the panel conducting the inquiry.

"We repeat our client’s strenuous denial of any wrong-doing on his part.

"It has been, at all times, the contention of our client that the complaint, the subject matter of your intended article, was solely and exclusively politically motivated. Your query references the alleged events of 11th October 2023 but makes no reference to a withholding of any complaint until the 26th July 2024, being the first working date, of 10 days, for nominations for Sinn Fein electoral candidates in Laois.

"It remains our client’s contention that the Sinn Fein disciplinary processes have been demonstrably abused throughout. The complaint was wilfully withheld for a period of almost 10 months, in an effort to spancel our client’s potential political candidacy. The existence of the complaint was so widely circulated in advance that our client was compelled to instruct this firm to write to Sinn Fein party leadership before our client received any acknowledgement of a complaint or the substance of any complaint against him.

"With the setting of a General Election date imminent, the campaign against our client has now orchestrated a deliberate leak to the press. Even the most naïve political observer could not conclude that this is a series of isolated coincidental events.

"It has been a source of extreme distress to our client and his family (whose ongoing support is greatly valued by him), that his lifelong service to Sinn Fein and the people of Laois (and Offaly) has been demeaned in this way at this stage of his political career. That his political adversaries would now abuse your newspaper, and probably others, in their cause, is yet more regrettable but not, alas, surprising."

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