'?2m award a total insult' say shocked Shortt family

Frank Shortt, who spent nearly three years in jail after being wrongly convicted of allowing drugs to be sold at his club, was awarded compensation of almost ?2m by the High Court last week.

The 70-year-old former accountant, who was framed by Donegal gardai, sued the State for damages after his case was declared a miscarriage of justice. The President of the High Court included in the ?1.91m a sum of ?500,000 for spending nearly three years in jail.

However, it was the sum of ?50,000 awarded in compensation for the "outrageous abuse of power" by gardai that most shocked the family.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Mr Shortt's daughter, Sabrina, said she regarded the award as an insult by the State: "I think is a complete insult to what we have gone through since 1993, from having raids on the Point Inn, to having been completely shunned because of the gardai. And to say now, well this is what you deserve," she said.

"The stories that we have told - how hard my mother worked, what it was like for us growing up as the kids of 'a drug dealer': then to give my father ?500,000 and that quantifies what we went through as a family. I take that personally as a complete insult from the State."

Mr Shortt plans to appeal the amount of the award. He declined to specify how much he is looking for in damages, but said that the figure is "realistic".

His wife, Sally, said: "We were shocked at the award. Frank is certainly not vindicated. His imprisonment didn't seem to mean very much to the State, whereas it destroyed our lives."

Sabrina Shortt, who is 28 and lives in Dublin, has vowed never to return to Donegal because of the hostility shown towards her family and the suspicion that remains. She described this weekend how her father's wrongful conviction resulted in herself and her siblings being taunted, and caused their school work and social life to suffer.

Mr Shortt's wife, Sally, said the family were shunned by their community in Inishowen: "We still live underneath a cloud. I think we are all living under this shamefulness of having had a father and a husband in prison. It is something that is very hard to come to terms with - not for me because I know Frank is innocent - but for other people. There are a lot of Doubting Thomases."

Mr Shortt, who is writing a book about his experiences, said: "I plan to retire, to live a quiet life with my family, and to be left alone."

In the Donegal peninsula of Inishowen, doors still slam shut on Frank Shortt and his family.

The 70-year-old publican cleared his name after being framed by gardai on a trumped-up drugs charge. Last week, he was awarded what he admits was the disappointing sum of ?2m in reparation for three years in jail.

But in his home parish of Redcastle, suspicion lingers. The family still struggles to cope with the legacy of a miscarriage of justice they say has left them living like pariahs in their community, bankrupt and surviving on an overdraft.

"The thing about rural people is that they look up to the church and the State. If the State says you've done something wrong, then they accept that as gospel," Sally said.

Frank Shortt, the son of a customs officer, abandoned a degree in political science at Trinity College to become a chartered accountant. After four years working as an accountant in America, he returned to Ireland in 1971 and joined the family pub business. The Point Inn in Inishowen had been in the Shortt family for generations - it was where Frank and Sally first met.

They had grand ambitions. When show bands and cabaret nights became passe in the early Nineties, the Shortts took out a ?50,000 mortgage to fund an extravagant makeover. When the Point Inn reopened on Easter Saturday, 1992, Donegal had never seen a disco like it.

However, gardai suspected that drugs were being used on the premises.

The club was subjected to successive Garda inspections. Road checks were set up right outside it. Drugs were never found, but the "inspections" were putting customers off.

As it later transpired, gardai in the district had already set out to nail him. A few months later, 60 gardai raided the Point Inn. Drugs were "found" on the floor amid massive publicity.

The Shortts were quickly shunned. Locals signed a petition to shut the Point Inn and priests denounced it from the pulpit.

On March 1, 1995, Mr Shortt was jailed for three years for allowing drugs to be sold in his club.

The fall-out for the Shortt family was far-reaching.

Mr Shortt's conviction was overturned in 2000 and declared a miscarriage of justice in 2002. Superintendent Lennon and Detective McMahon were suspended.