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00:01Hurling is an amateur game played by professionals.
00:06Their commitment is unreal.
00:08The pride in any parish to see their guy, our girl,
00:11lining out in the black and amber,
00:13that's why we flock to see him.
00:17Parts of the county have hurling there for 150 years.
00:21The game represents the values and the communities we play for.
00:25Other superstars at the time were super hurlers,
00:30but not the same.
00:32There was electricity about when he got the ball.
00:35From a very young age, he was so speedy, he was so fast.
00:39The artful Dodger, his classmates were calling him.
00:43He was able to stay out of danger, you see.
00:46And he didn't need to play dirty.
00:50I have to say he was the best I ever saw, really.
00:53There was a huge excitement when he was in form.
00:56And he was definitely the star.
00:59Kilkenny!
01:04DJ Kerry!
01:05DJ Kerry!
01:07Deadest Joseph Kerry.
01:09When the pressure was on, Kilkenny could rely on DJ.
01:13Probably like Georgie Best in his day.
01:15You knew that this was extraordinary and you didn't have to be a big hurling fan to know that you were looking at an absolutely superb athlete.
01:27Still DJ Kerry!
01:28The game!
01:29And it's good!
01:30DJ Kerry!
01:31DJ's in the waiting!
01:33A goal!
01:34I can still picture him on that TV scoring the goals, going for the high ball.
01:39I can still see him.
01:41You know, and he was, he was, he was God.
01:45DJ is God.
01:46In God we trust, in DJ we believe.
01:48If he was a professional today, he'd be worth 50 million.
01:54The right team would be worth nothing.
01:56Nothing.
01:57He seemed to handle that stardom very well on the field.
02:02Stars who give us highs in life, every county has their own.
02:06In any of their counties, those people could shoot somebody in their county.
02:10And it wouldn't come up on their CV.
02:14Judge Martin Nolan sentenced him to a total of five and a half years in jail, saying he couldn't imagine a more reprehensible type of fraud.
02:23You really have to do fairly serious mental acrobatics to get your head around it at all.
02:31I wonder how unhappy a man would have to be, to be hiding all that behind such a persona, which was so pure and wholesome.
02:43DJ Kerry is accused of inducing 23 people to pay him money after he had fraudulently claimed to have cancer.
02:50There are very good people in Kilkenny.
02:53They'll have tears in their eyes as they talk about his hurling and what has happened, and they cannot believe it.
02:59There are others that are absolutely torn by this.
03:02They don't want to talk about the fraud part of this story.
03:05He is the ultimate hitman, and we mean that in the nicest possible way.
03:10DJ Kerry.
03:12Kilkenny loved DJ. Why would they not?
03:15We're all responsible for the consequences of our actions.
03:18He was absolutely a master, Carmen.
03:22Cheers.
03:23But to this day, if I met him out in the street, if he wanted to talk to me, I would sit down and have a coffee with him.
03:28It's the most extraordinary story.
03:31It's the most extraordinary story.
03:47And while for a long time I didn't allow myself to have an opinion on it, I just tried to look at the evidence in front of me, read the text messages, talk to people, try and figure out what was going on.
03:59But now that I have come to the end of the road in terms of the investigation or exhausting a lot of avenues, I would say it looks like it's textbook criminality.
04:15It looks like it's a story of betrayal.
04:31It's the story of a man who was loved by so many people and ultimately he betrayed their love and their trust in him because he went back to those very same people and he took money from them.
04:45And the thing is, I think a lot of them would have given him the money, but he took it on the basis that he had cancer.
04:54Hi there, it's Imer Nivrain on here. I'm just checking in. I'm just wondering if you had a chance to think about our last conversation.
05:07Obviously, I'm traipsing around the country trying to get people to talk to me about what is going on at the moment.
05:13There were times when DJ got into some details about his personal life, so he addressed this issue or the rumour about cancer with journalists.
05:23Dennis Walsh reports that these whispers were persecuting Kerry, that there was an epidemic of rumours, so many, so sinister, so false.
05:32A couple of years ago, he reports, a story swept the southern half of the country that he was dying of cancer.
05:40He knows how it started. Suffering from stomach pains, he was sent to hospital in Waterford for tests.
05:46The tests took place in the same area of the hospital that housed the oncology facilities.
05:51Sitting there, he was seen, and from such a sighting, his cancer was born.
05:56So clearly in the interview, DJ dismissed any suggestion that he was suffering from cancer.
06:02But it begs the question, is this where DJ first got the idea about the cancer?
06:10Well, Bernie, how are you? How's it going? Thanks a million. You're very good to tell me about the celebrations that are coming up.
06:22Because I wondered about that. Because that 2000 team, that was obviously a big year for DJ.
06:29He'd have to be invited to that celebration then, on All-Ireland Day. Will they name him out? Will he get a standing ovation?
06:38Yes. You'll see what happens at half-time. Yeah.
06:42And foot forward with DJ Cleary from New Maryland. He scored 1-4 of the day, sending his total number 5 in total.
06:54And he would end the year with his 8th of 9 1-star awards. DJ is not with us today.
06:58We actually met a couple of people from his hometown in the last week.
07:11I think my impression, compared to a number of years ago, where people were almost defending him.
07:16And, you know, he was very revered. And it was a completely different viewpoint at this time.
07:23It's hard though as well, Ger. I know like Mag is saying about the feeling has changed, which is interesting from some people in Kilkenny.
07:30Because at the start, there was a lot of disbelief. But is it, you're in a different circle in a way to Mag, because you are very steeped in the GA.
07:39Is it a difficult position for you to be in?
07:41It's easy to say, oh, I'm angry. I'm, you know, disappointed. I'm, but like, it's a total, you know, it's a concoction of feelings really.
07:51And I think, you know, the general public really are probably in a similar position.
07:56You know, look, now, sitting back, I wasn't able to see beyond my decency or our decency.
08:05I mean, he played on your vulnerability, which, you know, is really, it is unforgivable really.
08:11I do know a person who rang me, who talked about, he had given some money to, I think about 5,000.
08:17And he said if his wife found out, she would divorce him. So he was busy doing all the hours God gave to try and replenish that fund.
08:25Because she didn't know, and she would never know, and he would never talk about it.
08:29And it was people like that. That was probably the day I decided, hang on here now, I just need to talk about this.
08:36How many people do you know personally, give DJ Kerry money?
08:50I'd say about 10. About 10. For sure.
09:00I regard myself as being a very lucky person, in terms of everything.
09:04Despite having cancer.
09:07When Gerard came home one day and said, listen, I've got a phone call, a very strange request from DJ Kerry.
09:11He's looking for 5,000.
09:13And he basically said, he's got your cancer.
09:16And I said, you're choking me. That's gas, you know.
09:21Kenny Hurling circles, it's a small place and, you know, you're at matches.
09:25You knew him, you know, maybe to say hello to him, maybe a few words, but like, it was, it was, there was nothing.
09:31In passing, he mentioned that a space had come available at short notice in this centre where he gets his stem cells.
09:40And he had a shortfall of monies and he needed, he needed money to get there and get his treatment and that he would repay the money upon, you know, when his insurance kicked in.
09:50Gerard just talked about that hospital in Seattle when he was in America getting treatment, blah, blah, blah.
09:58And I remember kind of taking it in, but not really.
10:00I said, if he needs the money, that's, that's fine.
10:02I was a bit surprised.
10:03I knew his business had been in difficulty.
10:06He wasn't well, so maybe he wasn't working.
10:09You know, I believed Ger's story.
10:11And I said, I remember saying to Ger, we have to presume we're never going to get that money back.
10:15And I said, it doesn't matter.
10:17It's 5,000.
10:18And if he needs the money, just give it to him.
10:21That's it.
10:22He's won in 2003.
10:25And Kilkenny are champions.
10:29You were very upset at the time that all the papers literally lit upon you at the time of your marriage breakup.
10:35How difficult was that?
10:37It, it, it was, it was a marriage breakup.
10:40It was, it was difficult.
10:44That's life, unfortunately.
10:46I'm a public figure.
10:47Amateur or not, I'm a public figure.
10:49But it's the stuff when they make up a story to get a story.
10:54I suppose it's what's most upsetting.
10:57And I'm a big person.
10:59I'm an adult.
11:00If I do something, I have to put my hand up and say, yes, I done that.
11:04I knew what I was doing.
11:05You know, so, and if that gets into the public arena, I can't help that.
11:10When DJ Carey himself addressed the rumours, he was given more fuel all the time to the fire.
11:18And there was more intrigue.
11:19Lo and behold, a few weeks later, he's in the headlines again.
11:23There was a front page story about how he had gone into the garage at Crookstown in County Kildare.
11:30He had stopped off.
11:32He left the keys in the car, left thousands of euro in the boot.
11:37And he came out and the car was on its way up the road.
11:41So the headline that the examiner went with that was on that front page was speedy DJ turns the tables on car thief.
11:51That was the front page on how the country's leading GAA star apparently proved to be just as worthy an opponent off the pitch as on.
11:59So he jumped into an onlookers car, they reported.
12:02He pursued the thief himself, even though Gardaí were aware there was a guard of cars, there was a guard of helicopter.
12:09And the journalist said that this story ended with Carey tracking down the thief, pulling him out of the BMW.
12:17However, the culprit eventually got away.
12:20So he managed to recover his car, but it was reported that several phones as well as two and a half grand in cash were taken.
12:27And the culprit was still on the run last night.
12:30It just seems like mad stuff.
12:33Thinking back, some of the detail of it was really extraordinary.
12:42It's absolutely crazy when you think of how many thousand miles this man drove.
12:47Who would do it?
12:49From Meischel in County Carlow all the way up to Armagh to some GAA hall.
12:55This was on another level.
12:57Now, usually hurlers could command a fee.
13:00They could get some cash, maybe five or six hundred pounds in an envelope to say thanks to them for doing a gig like that.
13:08There were people I spoke to that said, listen, DJ Carey came here.
13:12When we tried to pay him, he'd wave the hand and say, ah, the cup of tea is grand.
13:18I don't think DJ Carey was in it for the money.
13:21I don't think DJ Carey was pocketing huge amounts of money from these public appearances.
13:27He was very attention seeking behind it all.
13:31He craved, desperately craved people's approval.
13:39So in terms of his public profile, the perception of him, he had an excellent reputation.
13:45Because there were times when he walked into a parish and he was like God.
13:54After one particular gem and this ball was doing a river dance in the back of the net, I just said God in his heavenly throne couldn't do that.
14:11I don't think we knew DJ. I don't think any of those people, they knew, they knew the persona.
14:29The thing about DJ is, he was a very strange man.
14:33There's an Irish saying, if you want to know me, come live with me.
14:36And I think the people that really know DJ Carey, they spent a period of time actually living with him.
14:42Female relationships, ex-girlfriends, his former wife, they are the people that will know what the real DJ Carey is like.
14:50Because it's very hard to keep a persona or a mask on 24-7.
14:58I don't know if anyone is ever comfortable with the profile.
15:02It's there, it's something, you know, I've played our national sport at the highest level.
15:08DJ is spending more time all over the country.
15:12There was a suggestion a DJ was out maybe looking for somebody in terms of an agent of sorts.
15:21So it was reported in the media that Barbara Gallivan was DJ Carey's new agent.
15:27But Barbara had a good friend, Sarah Newman.
15:30The Dragons all know what it takes to be successful in the fiercely competitive world of business.
15:35Essex girl Sarah Newman made her fortune by setting up and selling the needahotel.com website.
15:42Sarah had been hugely successful in business.
15:49So she was known, got the name as The Dragon because she was on Dragon's Den.
15:54But certainly there was lots of extraordinary stories about her wealth at the time.
15:59For example, Sarah Newman went to Mount Juliet one day.
16:03She'd half a million and that she bought a home in Mount Juliet.
16:07And it is that day that she met DJ Carey.
16:09Sarah was the one with the money.
16:13DJ was the one with the profile.
16:15But as soon as he met Sarah, he stepped into a different world.
16:19Cheers.
16:20The country's still digesting the news that DJ's marriage is over.
16:38Five months later, he's out with Sarah Newman. Huge flurry of media interest.
16:44Cheers.
16:45DJ didn't exactly keep his head down.
16:48So you're fed up with the weather back home.
16:50You want a bit of golf.
16:51You want a bit of sun.
16:52Why not come to one of my favorite places in the world, Sun City?
16:55He went off and filmed a program with RT No Frontiers.
16:59And that's how he announced his relationship to Sarah, to the wider world.
17:03They went on a safari to South Africa.
17:04So for a fellow who was criven about privacy issues, why would you go off and film a program with your new girlfriend?
17:13Come on!
17:15Number 14 down there is my boyfriend, so that's why I'm interested.
17:19Kenny are producing players all the time.
17:21While it's an end of an era for some players, it's the start for others.
17:25DJ was coming to the end of his career. He was getting older as a hurler. He had given a huge amount to Kilkenny hurling.
17:34End of an era. DJ Carey has confirmed his inter-county career is over.
17:40He didn't owe the supporters anything, but definitely his dedication would have been dwindling towards the end.
17:45He seemed to be very interested in the golf now, and in heading out to the K Club and Mount Juliet to hit a few balls.
17:55He says he had no interest in the socialite scene, but yet himself and Sarah were pictured at many events like that.
18:04There were so many articles about them. Their names were mentioned many times in social diaries in the Irish Independent and elsewhere.
18:10And between them, they were a real Celtic Tiger power couple.
18:22I was a member of Mount Julie's since it opened. I would have often met DJ up there, played with him a couple of times up there.
18:31Knew him pretty well, to be honest with you.
18:35His partner, Sarah, I would have came across as well.
18:41He came across as so honest and truthful.
18:47An absolute gentleman that wouldn't know a lie if it bit him.
18:52I would never have questioned anything.
18:56I met him at Mount Julie's one day. He was telling me he'd been for an operation over in the States.
19:08And all I can tell you is it was stomach-turning what he described, what he went through over in the States, and the operation he had on his stomach.
19:21This is a jersey that DJ signed for me. One of a number of items he autographed for me.
19:36The hurl?
19:39He needed at least one or two more treatments, and he was financially in a bad situation.
19:47I was probably, at the time, just lucky. I had retired and I had a lump sum between finishing up work and my pension.
19:57So I did have money to spare. This hurl was made by DJ's brother. He's personally signed it to myself. I'll forever treasure this hurl for what it represents for the greatest hurler of all time.
20:16I had 700 or 800 on me the first day that I met him. So I gave him that and told him, look, I'd see what I could do.
20:24I didn't promise anything to him, but I think it was afterwards then I gave him the 10.
20:29You gave him 10,000?
20:31Yeah. And I gave him three, I think, after that, and 1,500.
20:38About 17, I think, in total.
20:40Things were great when Sarah was a multi-millionaire. Celtic Tiger times, plenty of wealth going around. DJ was certainly enjoying himself.
21:01Life was good in the K Club, but obviously we know what came afterwards. The crash, the fact that the properties that they paid multi-million-euro prices for, like, they weren't worth a fraction of it at the end.
21:14Once the banks wanted their money back, and once things started to get very stressful for the pair of them, the cracks started to appear.
21:22DJ's business was under pressure. So while the business was small, he had always managed to make a living out of it and to employ people from it.
21:32But Katrina, obviously, was really involved around this time. Around 2009, she had to step away.
21:40Newman took over as director with DJ at that stage.
21:44And she called in the auditors because she wasn't happy with what she saw.
21:53She also spoke to media about it. So this caused a massive issue for DJ and his family.
22:00Katrina was very unhappy with all of that.
22:02She had the media at her door in the period afterwards when all of this became public. So it got really, really dirty.
22:15Properties owned by him at golf resorts, the K Club in Kildare and Mount Juliet in Kilkenny that had been used as security for the debt. Other assets were sold too.
22:24The banks then on their tails as a couple. Then 2011, you know, they tried to save the relationship.
22:32There was talk at one stage that they'd get married even. For Sarah, she had actually planned the wedding.
22:38She had an exclusive interview on the 22nd of April 2012 when she said that the relationship with DJ was over.
22:47The Dragon and DJ were no more.
22:55Lo and behold, within weeks, DJ is back grabbing the headlines. This time he was in Kilkenny Garda Station.
23:02Apparently he was filling out a form or something like that when he took some kind of a turn and he collapsed.
23:09In 2012 you collapsed and your son, Mikey, heard the cruelest rumour of them all, which was what?
23:20He was told by a young fellow in his class that came out on Facebook that I had committed suicide.
23:26You know, so you can imagine how difficult that was and how difficult it was for him.
23:31Do you know what happened in terms of the cause of that collapse?
23:34Well, the cause of it was I was carrying a virus around my heart wall which is called pericarditis.
23:41Stress causes it, whatever else, and that brought it on. So, you know, but thankfully I was in the right place at the right time.
23:49Did you ever sustain?
23:51DJ did a very high profile interview and he alludes to health in that interview, but it's really confusing.
23:57Right, well that answers that question. Didn't you have a brain scan in hospital, DJ?
24:02I did, yeah. But the other thing I want to say about, you know, what I found was...
24:06There had even been rumours at that stage that there was something up with DJ.
24:11People were nearly afraid to say the word cancer, but certainly DJ left us with the impression that he had something serious wrong with him.
24:18What did your, the brain scan that you had in hospital show up?
24:21Well, I had a double aneurysm and I had seven blood clots.
24:25Shafers. Yeah.
24:27You tend to believe people when they say that something happened to them, but when it's something medical, it's extraordinarily difficult,
24:36because doctors can't verify a story for you about patients, and if the horse's mouth is telling you,
24:41well, yeah, I did go to America and I had clots on my brain, and maybe he did.
24:48But like everything with DJ, there's question marks.
24:52Because we don't know what's true and what's false, so he's a bit like the boy who cried wolf.
24:58It's very hard to know where the truth lies.
25:00When I heard about the cancer, I would say I probably neither believed it nor disbelieved it.
25:18It was just another story about DJ.
25:22And look, if you told me that DJ was going to the moon, I would have said, yeah, whatever.
25:28It might be true. Probably wasn't true. You never know.
25:38He came in occasionally as a customer. We'd see him now and...
25:41Over the years?
25:42Over the years, yeah.
25:43He always sat at those two tables with his back to the wall, where the sign 17 is, there, or the other one over there.
25:51He always sat there, looking down this way.
25:54Do you think he was targeting people?
25:58No, with hindsight, you're thinking, yeah, he was seeing who his next mark was going to be almost, you know.
26:04There was one man coming in here, and he was involved in the hurling community.
26:08He was, you know, a businessman, and he just told me that he'd give DJ money.
26:15And I can still remember seeing him standing up there, talking with DJ, you know.
26:20So, the money is part of it, but I think the real lack of confidence and respect that you lose when someone you hold in high regard just lets you down a bit, I suppose.
26:35A friend of mine, down in Kilkenny, was walking through the lobby in the hotel, and there was DJ sitting there, and he asked my friend for my phone number.
26:49I'd heard that he wasn't well, that he had a very, very serious condition.
26:56There was a killer disease, but the treatment that he was getting in Seattle was working.
27:07He phoned me, he needed funds.
27:11My first reaction, of course, whatever we can do, we'll do it.
27:14I had a pub that I found in Spain, Paddy's Point. We were making lots of money.
27:23In Spain, my son Ian, DJ, would have been his idol as well.
27:27I said to Ian, we have to do something, we have to do something for DJ.
27:33And he agreed with that, you know.
27:36On the Friday, he rang me, and he said that he was going to Seattle on Tuesday.
27:45He says, Bernie, you're immersed in the GAA there in Westmeath, and you know the people, you know all the clubs.
27:51Could you get the clubs to raise some funds for this, for me?
27:55I said, of course I will, DJ, but it has to start in Kilkenny.
27:59And by this time I said, surely there must, even to tide you over, there must be people down in Kilkenny after you've done all you've done for Kilkenny.
28:08Yeah, he said, I can't do anything down there, I get nothing down there on account of the sister.
28:13Yeah.
28:17He said the scandal with his sister had broken at that time, and I can't set up anything in Kilkenny.
28:24A former Ireland hockey international and camogie player faces three charges of money laundering between January of 2019 and December 2021,
28:35having falsely represented that Carey's Fort Asset Estates was in a position to secure finance for distressed mortgage holders,
28:43and that the deposit was refundable.
28:44DJ Carey, while what he was doing was completely separate to his sister, they were on two different paths.
28:56But all the time while the focus was on Katrina, people were wondering, what if he's not credible?
29:03What if he's been telling us lies?
29:05People started to scrutinise things a little bit more carefully.
29:08When Katrina's story was exposed, there was all of a sudden a lot of attention on the Careys, and that wouldn't have suited DJ.
29:19Katrina Carey, Paul Murphy here from RT Investigates. I'd like to ask you about your business and your business practices, please, if you have a moment.
29:24The news with his sister had broken at this stage, so I was taken aback.
29:31And then Ian, in Spain, he heard something as well.
29:34We were going to give him five grand. He said, hold back on that. He said, there's something not right.
29:42He said, give him a thousand first, and we'll see how it goes.
29:48I rang DJ to a silence.
29:55I knew that he didn't consider that any good, you know, and I felt bad.
29:59And I knew then, as nice as DJ is, I knew that he really was not happy.
30:12I had a quick conversation with my brother, and I said to him, you know, what's DJ Carey like?
30:17And he just said to me, stay away from him. Something not right there.
30:20I said, you know, he's very sick. Not at all. There's nothing wrong with him. Be careful. Stay away from him.
30:25And then I decided, hmm, right, I think we might have a little bit of a problem here.
30:33There came a point, I think, Meg, all of a sudden realised here maybe that there was some level, something deceitful about what was going on.
30:40She found the strength and just said to me, like, being fiercely determined that this wasn't going to happen to another person.
30:50She just said, enough is enough. That's it. End of story. This is not going to happen to anyone else.
30:54From anyone else.
31:05This is DJ Carey, your DJ tonight.
31:07At the time, it never even occurred to me that anybody could be so devised or maleperative to tell somebody that had a cancer.
31:18And even worse to say, to tell the husband of a recently diagnosed person that had the same cancer.
31:24I couldn't, I didn't believe in anyone that could be that evil to do that.
31:29So I absolutely never, never occurred to me that he didn't have cancer. Never.
31:35I still was very, you know, maybe I do want the money back now.
31:39If he's getting the insurance money.
31:42So I sent a message to DJ and again he come back, oh yeah, yeah, I'll do it next week.
31:47And that went down for a number of weeks.
31:48Then he, he'd go back and say, well, I have to transfer.
31:51He, he, he started to, to talk in riddles a bit.
31:55And I began to, I suppose, realize over time that something wasn't quite right here.
32:01Check it back by natural.
32:03Okay.
32:05So I got a call one day from very successful businessman.
32:09And he said, hi, Mike, how are things?
32:12And I said, great, how are you?
32:14I won't mention his name.
32:15And he said, uh, do you know Deidre Carey?
32:19And I said to him, how much did you give him?
32:22Yeah, big eejit.
32:25And he said, oh my God, yeah, I heard, I got, your name was mentioned.
32:29And I discovered that this person had given well in excess of a hundred thousand.
32:34If it works out, brilliant.
32:36And if it doesn't, well, you have to take the flack afterwards.
32:39So, tell us, uh, did DJ ask you for a loan?
32:54Oh, he did, yeah.
32:55Oh, sure.
32:56You know, the, the, the usual stuff, there was, you know, it didn't make, it didn't add up.
32:59I met him another day and he says, uh, just after getting a full body blood transfusion the previous week.
33:10And he was carrying a bag and I said, geez, I says, that's amazing.
33:13I said, you're, I think you're some man for one man.
33:15And, uh, but I thought to myself, you know, this is, this doesn't, doesn't sound right.
33:20Doesn't even, even sound kosher even.
33:23So I asked a friend of mine who's a doctor, you see, and I said, listen, I said, if somebody had a full body blood transfusion, uh, how long would it take to recover?
33:33And he says, Jesus, he says, depends on the system and their body and where they were and all the rest of it.
33:38And he says, some, three months plus.
33:40So I said, uh, so he asked me afterwards, do you think about it?
33:44I says, no, I did it.
33:45But I says, no, I won't be, do anything for you.
33:47There was a friend of mine then.
33:48Okay.
33:49He came to me and he told me he gave him money.
33:51And I says, uh, are you sure that was the right thing to do?
33:55And he says, well, I felt it was right.
33:57And do you know much again?
33:59I'm not sure.
34:00I'm not sure.
34:01He didn't specify the amount, but it was, to, to, to sizeable.
34:04So this.
34:05It was more than 15,000 a year.
34:12He's a very capable man.
34:14Very eloquent.
34:16You know, very clever man.
34:18He's not, he's not stupid.
34:21You know, by any means.
34:24I have nothing but fond memories of DJ.
34:26Very grateful to him.
34:27He has always been good and kind, remembered me.
34:31He invited us to his wedding and the launch of his, um, book.
34:35The day in City West when the, the DVD was launched by the Taoiseach at the time, Bertie Iron.
34:48Some of the lads that heard about DJ when the bad news broke, they said, they stuck by him.
34:54Because they said, well, he's messed up.
34:57But we wouldn't have got where we are without him.
35:00We own, we own an awful lot.
35:02I spoke to him once for a while on the phone there.
35:09On the surface, he was saying everything seemed to be going well.
35:12Like he was going to take this court case and take that.
35:15The police had confiscated his phone and gone after people to try and get a case against him.
35:22And, um, things were bad.
35:27But he was, he was, he was, he was optimistic, you know.
35:31You see, when you look at it, like, he has to have been run and scared for the last 20 years.
35:36He must have been, or the last 10 years.
35:38Like when the news broke about his sister, he knew that his finances were going to be looked at.
35:43So he must have been, like, what sort of life had he?
35:52There are some moments where you think, like, how could he have gotten to this point?
36:04Like this point of desperation.
36:07I don't know the date that this photograph was taken originally.
36:23But this photo emerged and it was on loads of different forums, platforms, social media, Twitter, WhatsApp.
36:32Every group in the country nearly was sharing this image of DJ.
36:36From what I can see, it appears to be a photograph that DJ took that he sent to somebody.
36:44Maybe somebody he was interacting with around treatment and looking for money or whatever.
36:50It looked like some kind of a charger or iPhone or otherwise stuck inside his nose.
36:55A fairly lame attempt, really, to show treatment for cancer.
37:01And it's hard to think, you know, that anybody would believe that.
37:09But then when you compare that to what some of the people who were really involved with DJ,
37:15they recognised things in the photograph that said to me and said to others, said to their friends,
37:21that would be DJ all over, that he was quite creative, that he thought that he was smart.
37:26Like just all very, very strange stuff.
37:29I remember saying to someone, what were people thinking, giving him money?
37:36And they said, if you had a million euro and DJ asked you for a hundred grand, would you give it to him?
37:44And I said, yeah, you know, I would.
37:46You would?
37:47If he had asked me, I would have given it to him.
37:49Now I would have had to.
37:50I don't have a hundred grand to hand out.
37:52But if I had, if I was well off and he asked me, I would have given it to him.
37:56And I think that because we loved him so much as a hurler.
38:00That picture, I suppose, is extremely special.
38:12I got it after the 2003 All-Ireland.
38:16DJ was signing autographs as he usually does for everybody.
38:21And my daughter, Bridget, was in the photo along with my niece, Jenny.
38:27And to have a photograph like that for me and for them as well, it's just a treasure to have that.
38:38And after what's happened, I couldn't leave it in the hallway anymore.
38:46So rather than throw it in the bin, it's still history there.
38:52So it's just discreetly put aside in the front room now.
39:07I remember thinking to myself, it was the principal.
39:09I'm going to get my money back.
39:11How am I going to do it?
39:13So I literally started to play his game.
39:17I literally started to play the DJ Gary game.
39:22That's how I got my money back.
39:24Me and you against the world, DJ.
39:26Everybody thinks you're a bad guy.
39:27You're not a bad guy.
39:28I know you're a good guy.
39:30I know where you've come from.
39:32You're a role model for my kids.
39:34You know, I'll work with you, DJ.
39:37Because I know you're going to give me the money back.
39:39Because you know, if you don't, you wouldn't have to see your name spread across the front of the Irish Times.
39:46Because everybody loves DJ Gary.
39:49And that wouldn't be something you'd want.
39:51Because I know your reputation is so important to you, DJ.
39:54It's more important than that 5,000.
39:59Time was moving on.
40:00It was getting closer and closer for me to go into isolation pre-stem cell transplant.
40:05And I rang him and said, okay, I need this money by Monday.
40:11Would I come meet him?
40:12I said, no, you come meet me in Goat's Bridge.
40:14I wasn't going to be there.
40:16He didn't know that.
40:17And I rang Gary.
40:18He was up in the factory.
40:19And he came down from the factory to meet DJ.
40:21And I sent a text to DJ around that stage and said, by the way, I'm really sorry DJ.
40:25I got stuck down in the hospital just getting bloods.
40:28Gary, I'll meet you.
40:29I hope that's okay.
40:30She said, he'll have 5,000 euro for you.
40:34Will you check it?
40:35So, I came in.
40:37I counted the money.
40:39I think I said to him, that was grand.
40:43He didn't say hello.
40:45He was embarrassed.
40:46For sure.
40:47I think he was embarrassed.
40:48But, you know, maybe embarrassing.
40:51But there was shame or some element of, you know, he realised here that he had fucked with the wrong person.
41:00So, Gary rang me at the happiest one.
41:02They'd had the coffee, the trash.
41:04I got the money.
41:05And I'm more laughing because I just said to myself, poor Fekker, who did he get the five grand from?
41:10I'm embarrassed by all this in lots of ways.
41:17Maggie said to me, oh, cop yourself on.
41:20Like, kind of, you know, what are you embarrassed about?
41:22This man was, like, unfortunately, like, you know, a con man.
41:27He was taking monies off lots of people.
41:29And a few of these stories were kind of outlined.
41:32And then, I think, you know, there was a call then for a guard investigation.
41:37So, I got a phone call from a detective.
41:44The reason that they had my name was because they had, obviously, his bank records.
41:48And they asked me whether to come and speak to him.
41:52So, I went down to Waterford and I sat there and I told my story.
41:56I felt it was important to stop him in his tracks.
42:02I won't protect him.
42:04But I will protect anybody who comes in contact with him from it happening to them.
42:09Absolutely.
42:10The guards rang me one day and the first thing they said to me is,
42:19I believe you're a friend of DJ Carey's.
42:23And I said, yeah, I am.
42:25And then I said, look, before we go on, can you categorically tell me
42:33that DJ never had an operation for cancer in the States?
42:39And they were able to tell me categorically he never had cancer.
42:46He was never in the States.
42:50I'd say I'd give him an Oscar for the acting.
42:54It was unreal.
42:56The thing about it is I never, I didn't care whether I got the money back.
43:01He would have got the money anyhow from me even if he wasn't sick.
43:04That's what an icon he was.
43:07He didn't have to say he was sick even.
43:09It's because he used the sickness.
43:12That's brought the sour note to everybody's door.
43:17The judge said most fraudsters seek to exploit people's greed,
43:22but DJ Carey had exploited people's good nature.
43:25He knew a lot of these people.
43:27They knew him as a formidable sportsman and wanted to help him in his hour of need.
43:34There's an old Chinese proverb, no man should be judged on his worst deed.
43:40Now the only thing that soured me, I had a good friend that we buried early this year, Jono Mahoney.
43:49And Jono was equally iconic in the GA as DJ.
43:56And he was one of the loveliest guys you could meet.
43:59And Jono had the disease that DJ claimed he had.
44:05And Jono, the dignity with which he fought it and carried himself.
44:09That was the difference between two GA sporting icons.
44:14I resented very much then for the first and only time I resented what DJ was doing, you know, on account of that.
44:21I'm sure it would be a disappointing turn for the average supporter.
44:39But it won't make any difference to me in how I look at the game of hurling.
44:44I'll still see that ball hitting the crossbar in Croke Park.
44:52I'll still see the crowd getting up under seats.
44:55Highs in life and memorable moments.
44:59There are no prosecutor, or no journalist, give me that moment.
45:07I won't get that spark that made my life a higher quality elsewhere.
45:14Yeah, I do remember the way he made me feel.
45:20And I don't know, I don't think it excuses bad behaviour.
45:26You know, it doesn't. I'm sorry.
45:28When you look at it, it's everywhere.
45:31It's in arts, it's in film.
45:33What do we think of the Woody Allen masterpieces?
45:35What do we think of Caravaggio's?
45:37Do we still listen to thriller?
45:39You know, like, what do you do with that huge moral dilemma about the sinner and the sin?
45:49And I think we loved the sinner, but we can't condole the sin.
45:55I'm disgusted.
46:04Your wife died of cancer.
46:05Oh, gosh. Yeah.
46:07Did DJ know that?
46:09Oh, sure. That was...
46:11You can't live my life and live the life I've lived in front of people.
46:17Like, when my wife died.
46:19Like, I've seen what cancer does, and I've seen the devastation that cancer can have,
46:24and I've seen the devastation that cancer had in our house.
46:27And the effort that it took to get to the stage we're at now.
46:34But as regards DJ, DJ would have known, like...
46:39But for somebody, for anybody to say that they suffer from cancer,
46:46and if it's not true, there's no comeback.
46:50You just can't be comfortable with that.
46:52That, to me, is beyond it.
46:55DJ has been jailed now for five and a half years.
47:03It's really hard to say exactly how much he took.
47:06Some sources are saying to me that two million wouldn't be wide off the mark.
47:10Businessman Dennis O'Brien alone gave DJ over €125,000 and $13,000.
47:17There's victims watching this, and they've never come forward.
47:21Some men will be afraid to have told their wives,
47:24but the question is, how many of them are out there, and how much was taken?
47:28Former Kilkenny hurler DJ Kerry has been jailed for five and a half years for defrauding people by falsely claiming he had cancer and needed money for treatment.
47:44Kerry defrauded 22 people out of almost 400,000 euro, around 350,000 euro, of which has never been repaid.
47:53The judge said he couldn't imagine a more reprehensible form of fraud.
47:58I was delighted when he pleaded guilty because he's now facing up to the reality because he wasn't living in a real world up to now.
48:15When you have an addiction problem, and obviously DJ has a type of addiction, you have to face the truth yourself.
48:24And hopefully he will.
48:28And when he was a hurler, he never failed to take responsibility.
48:32Standing up in Croke Park to take a penalty shot in an all-Ireland final day, that takes guts.
48:38So that if he shows the same type of resilience and determination and guts, he can get through this as well.
48:51To me, anyway, it's a Shakespearean tragedy.
48:55A fatal flaw in a grand person.
49:02But it's of his own making.
49:03A fatal flaw in his own making.
49:33A fatal flaw in his own making.
49:43A fatal flaw in the world, his own making.
49:47A fatal flaw in his own making.
49:51A fatal flaw in his own making.
49:55The ultimate flaw in his life, since he is 무 dharma,
49:59And the flaw in the dream of 살va,
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