Ireland’s longest criminal trial in legal history ended in calamity last week after the judge was forced to acquit the former chairman of collapsed Anglo Irish Bank because the country’s white-collar crime agency had shredded important documents and coached witnesses to secure a conviction.
It was the third time that Sean FitzPatrick had been before a judge to face charges relating to Ireland’s biggest banking disaster, and it is the third time that he has walked free from court—due more to the prosecutor’s incompetence than to the luck of the Irish.
