Paul Kimmage Addressed Tom Humphries Character References Given By Walsh And Cusack

Paul Kimmage has said that David Walsh and Donal Óg Cusack were both rightly criticised for writing a character reference to the court for Tom Humphries.

Former Irish Times journalist Humphries will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to six charges in relation to the sexual abuse of a young girl.

Speaking on Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ One on Monday night, Kimmage added that he did not feel it right either that Walsh and Cusack were being targeted by a 'lynch mob'.

I don't think there is any justification, or would ever be a justification, for writing a character reference in a case like that.

I think David has made a very, very bad mistake. I think Donal Óg Cusack has made a really bad mistake.

I don't believe they are complicit in what Tom did. I don't believe in the lynch mob that's out there now trying to hang them from a height because what they did in good faith - I believe that what they did, they did it in good faith. They did it out of the best intentions possible and they were ill-advised. They made a mistake. That in no way means they are complicit in what Tom Humphries did.

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Just prior to addressing the character references given by Walsh and Cusack, Kimmage said that he had visited Humphries a number of years ago.

I know Tom, I don't think anyone who has had an interest in sport in this country wouldn't know Tom. Without question, the most gifted sportswriter I have known.

I worked closely with Tom through the 90s. I went to London for ten years and towards the end of my spell in London I found out that he was being investigated for these charges that we know now.

I went to see Tom, and I heard he had tried to take his own life. I went in to see Tom in St Patrick's. What I saw was pitiful: a man who was in a dreadful state, who knew he had made a dreadful mistake and whose life was totally destroyed.

Before I came on the programme, I'm getting messages from people saying that 'We haven't heard you talk about Tom Humphries. What is you stance on this?' I don't know what I'm supposed to say because I've seen a girl whose life has been totally destroyed, a man who has destroyed his own life and his family's life.

For as long as we remember Tom Humphries, it won't be as this great sportswriter, it will be this horrible act, what he has done.

Kimmage added: "I am absolutely horrified, it is incomprehensible what he did. When I went to see him, obviously I got a version, a sense of what was going on. I got a sense pretty quickly that maybe I wasn't being told everything. I decided, 'What is the right thing to do?' I had to ask myself. I still don't know the answer to this."

"I haven't seen him for three years now. I had to step away and say, 'I'm supporting a friend, is that the right thing to do? Should I step away?' I decided, rightly or wrongly, to step away and let justice take its course."