Claims arrest was 'politically motivated'
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Wednesday May 13 2009
A LOCAL election candidate, who appeared in court on Friday charged with recklessly discharging a firearm in 2001, is claiming his arrest was 'politically motivated.'
James Carey is due in Drogheda District Court on polling day June 5th.
Carey is alleged to have shot the wife of a garda in the backside with a pellet gun and to have shot at another young man and then driven off, in an incident in Gormanston in 2001. Carey now 26, says the allegation relates to a 'childish teenage prank' when he was 17.
'Why have the gardaí waited eight and a half years to bring forward this case?,' asked Mr Carey.
A native of Stamullen, James Carey is standing as an independent for the Slane electoral area of east Meath.
He says he has received death threats since he set up a voluntary work scheme for asylum seekers in the Mosney accommodation centre.
'Threats warning me to stop or I will be killed, have come by letter, email and from a caller to my door. I have asked the gardaí to carry out a forensic examination on the letter I received,' said Mr Carey.
He maintains the reactivating of charges from the incident in 2001 are 'a deliberate effort to destroy' his election campaign.
'That is why the book of evidence is being served on polling day June 5th,' he claimed.
Mr Carey believes his opponents are 'trying to discredit' him by raising issues from his past.
'My Mosney campaign and involvement with developers planning to turn Julianstown's Ballygarth Castle into a boutique hotel and golf course, have ruffled feathers,' he said.
Mr Carey said his supporters in Stamullen have rallied around him since his arrest on Friday.
'Instead of deterring me these dirty tricks have the opposite effect. I'm more determined than ever to continue my election campaign,' he stressed.
- Angela MCCORMICK
