DJ Victim: 'I'd have given him the money without the lie'
A victim of convicted fraudster DJ Carey believes he would have given the hurling icon money without his having to lie about having cancer.
Retired accountant Thomas Butler, who gave the player around €17,000 for cancer treatment in the US, tells a new two-part RTÉ documentary which begins tomorrow night, that it was the use of cancer that brought ‘a sour note’ to proceedings.
In the film directed by Bafta and Emmy-nominated Trevor Birney, fraud victims conned by the Kilkenny forward display a mix of anger, betrayal and bewilderment.
Former Kilkenny selector DJ Carey before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group B Round 1 match between Kilkenny and Dublin at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Widely regarded as one of the greatest hurlers of all time, Carey was jailed for five-and-a-half years earlier this month for defrauding people by falsely claiming he had cancer and needed money for treatment.
Mr Butler explained that Carey didn’t have to lie to get financial help from him.
Thomas Butler. Pic: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie
‘That’s what an icon he was. He didn’t have to say he was sick even. It’s because he used the sickness that’s brought the sour note,’ he says sadly.
In the documentary, he describes how Carey first approached him for money at Mount Juliet golf course, where he was a member. And the hurler described a ‘stomach-churning’ treatment he was getting in the US.
DJ Carey. Pic: Collins Courts
When Carey told the accountant, who had recently retired with a lump sum, that he was in a bad situation financially, Mr Butler handed over seven or eight hundred euro straight away.
Much later, when the gardaí rang asking if he was a friend of DJ Carey, he had one question before he would proceed.
‘Can you categorically tell me that DJ never had an operation for cancer in the States? And they were able to tell me categorically that he never had cancer. He was never in the States. I’d say I’d give him an Oscar for the acting.’
DJ Carey: The Dodger is on RTÉ One tomorrow at 9.35pm.
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