Carberry Jailed Over Fire On Plane

Paul Carberry has been jailed for two months today for setting fire to a newspaper on a plane from Spain to Dublin.

The 32-year-old rider pleaded not guilty to a charge of engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the peace on the Aer Lingus flight on October 1 last year.

But at Swords District Court in Dublin, Judge Patrick Brady described Carberry's evidence in the case as contrived.

He said he also had to consider the seriousness of the risk to passengers on a plane travelling at 12,000ft and the distress it had caused to them.

'I would be failing in my duty if I didn't mark the offence,' he said.

Judge Brady sentenced Carberry to two months in jail and fined him 500euros

Carberry has registered a string of high-profile successes since riding his first winner on the Flat at Leopardstown in 1990.

The jockey hit the headlines when he teamed up with his trainer father Tommy to claim the 1999 Grand National at Aintree with Bobbyjo.

Carberry was also crowned Irish champion jockey in 2002, where he became the first man since Charlie Swan in 1996-1997 to ride a century of winners.

He is now retained by trainer Noel Meade and the pair teamed up to good effect with Nicanor last season, taking both the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

Carberry was granted bail after paying 1,000 (#670) in cash and was allowed to walk free from court, pending an appeal against the conviction.

He jumped into a waiting car without making any comment.

Judge Brady, who heard evidence about the incident from 14 witnesses on Monday, said the state's case was clear and had not been upset on cross-examination.

He noted that Carberry's evidence to the court included three important variations on the original statement he had provided to Gardai in Dublin Airport last October, as well as 'one contradiction of a point therein'.

'I conclude that his evidence was contrived,' he said.

Judge Brady said that while Carberry had claimed that setting the newspaper on fire was a 'freak accident', the usual definition of this term was an 'unusual and unexpected event'.

'On the evidence, I reject this,' he said.

He added that the evidence clearly pointed towards recklessness by Carberry, who had accepted in cross examination that he was reckless.

Carberry, dressed in a black suit, blue shirt and checked tie, had been given permission to sit on a bench at the front of the court while Judge Brady delivered his verdict.

Judge Brady said the jockey's defence team could not say that there was no danger or substantial risk from his actions in the plane, when he set the Irish Times newspaper of a fellow passenger on fire.

'Would the defendant, an experienced jockey, have acted similarly in a stable or a transporter, containing straw and hay? I would suggest emphatically not,' he said.

Carberry had been returning from a holiday in Spain with 14 friends when he set fire to an Irish Times newspaper owned by his friend Paul Condon, who was sitting on the plane beside him.

The jockey maintained it happened accidentally while he was fiddling around with a cigarette lighter.

The court heard that some passengers started crying but the fire was extinguished in a few seconds.

Judge Brady said he accepted Condon's evidence about the incident but he was highly critical of the evidence given by another friend who was travelling on the plane with Carberry, professional fireman Alan Egan.

'I found his evidence contrived and false and not believable in parts. He was not reliable,' he said.

He also said the evidence given by David Russell, another passenger, seemed to fly in the face of the evidence given by other witnesses.

Barrister Carl Hanahoe, representing Carberry, said the jockey had no previous convictions and had expressed remorse for the distress he caused to the Aer Lingus passengers.

He said Carberry was involved in charity work with a group of 10 other jockeys and attended fundraisers on a monthly basis, often before race meetings.

He said the most recent of these was at Roscommon Racecourse prior to the Cheltenham Festival, which raised 50,000 euro for the Chernobyl Children's Project.

'This is not something he publicised but clearly the court should have regard to it,' said Mr Hanahoe.

He said Carberry had been travelling on an almost daily basis to ply his trade in Britain and as far afield as Hong Kong.

'This is the first time he has ever been involved in an incident of this nature.'

Outlining further mitigating factors, Mr Hanahoe pointed out that the authorities in the USA and Australia would take a dim view of Carberry's conviction and added that the level of media interest in the case had caused the jockey and his family considerable distress.

Judge Brady accept this latter point but firmly rejected the defence suggestion that Carberry was entitled to leniency because he had not consumed alcohol on board the plane.

'In other words he was fully compos mentis (of sound mind) ? there was no excuse,' he said.

He added that by pleading not guilty, Carberry had ensured there was a lengthy trial.

Carberry looked dazed when the two-month jail sentence was announced and his defence immediately announced that they would be appealing.

While he waited a further 30 minutes for his bail conditions to be agreed, he had the opportunity to listen to the case of a man who pulled down his trousers and roared abuse at Gardai, as well as a defendant who wanted his case postponed because he was going on holiday.

Carberry was supported in court by his father Tommy, who also won the Grand National riding L'Escargot in 1975.

? PA Sport