Disgraced hurler DJ Carey had ‘begging letter templates' he would send to cancer scam victims
The person described Carey as an 'emotional terrorist' who targeted them and a group of their friends in a bid to lure others into his scam to get money over his fake cancer yarn.
This individual was due to be called as one of the state's 34 witnesses in the case against the legendary Kilkenny hurler over deceiving a string of people out of money before he this week pleaded guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 10 charges related to defrauding people who believed he had cancer.
Today they unveil how the one-time sporting ace, who won five All-Ireland titles and is a former All Star and Kilkenny captain, caught people in his trap.
Anonymous
'The investigating officers told us that, from half five in the morning until two o'clock the next night, he was busy with emails – he had three templates,' explains the person, who says they want to remain anonymous because they are fearful of him.
DJ Carey in his playing days for Kilkenny
'Basically they were letters looking for help. He had one [relating to] Revenue, and he would send them to people in business who had issues with Revenue and they would be sympathetic.
'He had one related to the banks, saying 'the banks were at him' and they needed this help, and that was for people who he knew had issues with the banks.
'Then he had the one about cancer and sympathy. He sent that out to people who he knew either had cancer themselves or were bereaved because of cancer. He was sending them out to everybody.'
The witness said they believe a lot of high-profile people were targeted by Carey.
'The police said it was literally a 'who's who' of Irish celebrities from the 1990s and 2000. He just randomly messaged everybody. He'd find their details or meet them at events,' they explain.
'We heard him one time on the phone to Mick McCarthy, and another time he said he was going to see Daniel O'Donnell in Donegal, whether he tried to bum money off him too, who knows.
'He'd keep in with GAA clubs, ministers, even lower level people so they'd feel starstruck with the big famous guy and so they'd be spilling the beans to him. He'd ring people gossiping all the time, looking for information on wealthy people or whoever.'
The witness recalls how she first met the 54-year-old several years ago when they and a group of friends were approached by him in a shop in Kilkenny City while they were buying coffee.
Started
'He just started talking to us and the second sentence was, 'I have terminal cancer',' they said.
'We would have recognised him from school, as we would have got a day off because of the All-Ireland, but we had never actually met him. He's a good bit older than all of us.
'I wasn't starstruck, the lads maybe, and he really milked that completely.'
But having never seen him before Carey started turning up elsewhere.
'Almost the other same week the other group of our friends were in a restaurant, and he just sat there and made conversation and said the exact same thing,' they maintain.
'We found out later that he had been asking about us months before we actually met us. Him meeting us was not an accident, he researches people and does this to everyone.'
The witness names a cancer victim whom Carey stung for €5000, but who managed to get it back off him.
'We would have had a few charity fundraisers in the town and he just did a bit of googling, and whoever was in the papers.'
The witness also reveals how his story – about what he told them was his cancer journey – included dealing with a specialist in a Seattle hospital.
'The actual story of how he got 'cancer' is amazing,'
Former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 6th
'He maintained he had a number of aneurisms around 2011, he said he was brought into a Dublin hospital for a treatment for a brain aneurism and he said some foreign doctor made a mistake and gave his radium therapy, which you wouldn't do.
'He said not only did they make a mistake with the treatment but they gave him too much.
'He said he got a blood cancer called multiple myeloma from this radium thing.'
They say that Carey then claimed he got his 'good friend Denis O'Brien' to engage with a solicitor to help him (Mr O'Brien was listed in court this week as one of Carey's 13 named victims he scammed out of money).
'Denis O'Brien doesn't know him from a hole in the wall, but he said Denis gave him a solicitor and he said they sued James' hospital and he got over €1 million in compensation,' they point out.
'When we met him [he claimed] the prognosis was very bad and he had eight months to live. He was such a good actor, even putting on a croaky voice.
'Then he said he went off to a faith healer and got 'better'. Then he got 'sick' again.'
The witness says they lost some money through her dealings with Carey through a different issue, but managed to get it back.
'I think he thought we had loads of money because we did a load of charity stuff and had a lot of connections. We do a lot of stuff with sick children.
'It's very weird, it wouldn't ask for money directly. He'd say he had 'issues with Revenue' and the payment was coming soon having won this litigation with the bank, so what he was always doing was looking for money in lieu of this big payment coming
'For us he never asked us for any money for treatment, but he used us to spread the story he was sick. We are different type of victims.
'We would have introduced him to an awful lot of people.
'He was known for following people around, get to know what they were doing.
'He would find out people's Achilles heels and use it against them. He would turn up everywhere.'
The witness and their group were eventually contacted by gardai.
Uncomfortable
'The police said 'the only thing we can tell you that all he was trying to do was buy time because it made him look like he was legitimate and accompanying nice people',' they disclose.
The witness says gardaí said they had never came across anyone like Carey.
'When they had him for 48 hours, that he sat down and he did not move,' they stress.
'He didn't speak and he had no comment, and wasn't a bit uncomfortable and didn't flinch, They have to give toilet breaks, so he'd just get up for them.
'They said he would never reply, not even 'no comment'. They got exacerbated that he was so steely and psychologically not perturbed. They said they actually gave us and they'd never had anybody in custody like that.
'What they said to us and others was they believe it was a psychological disorder and most likely psychopathy.'
A spokesperson for Denis O'Brien told the Sunday World the businessman had 'no comment' to make about DJ Carey.
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