The retired farmer who, with RTÉ, is being sued for libel by Beverley Cooper-Flynn has said that he has no doubt that the woman who sold him a CMI offshore policy in 1993 was Ms Cooper-Flynn. James Howard was cross examined in the witness box today by counsel for the Fianna Fáil deputy.
Sixty-nine-year-old James Howard is certain that it was Beverly Cooper-Flynn and not another National Irish Bank employee Patricia Roche who sold him a CMI policy in May 1993. “I never lied about Beverly Cooper-Flynn”, he said, telling the jury that if he dealt with one person and not another he would know the person he had done business with. He says that he later had dealings with Ms Roche whose handwriting appears on documents relating to the CMI business. He denied being motivated by greed or revenge against NIB when he contacted Charlie Bird about the CMI scheme.
Under cross examination by Garret Cooney for Ms Cooper-Flynn, James Howard said that Charlie Bird had not put words in his mouth during their interviews. “I know what I'm about”, he said, “and what Mr Bird is about and that is the truth”. In his first interview with Charlie Bird, James Howard was not named. Garret Cooney called his actions unmanly and said that what he did in that broadcast was a silent despicable assassination of Beverly Cooper-Flynn's good name and reputation.
