The Curious Lawsuit of Film Maker Neville Presho Vs Hotelier Patrick Doohan
A disappeared house in Tory island
In the 1970s, an engineer by the name of Neville Presho decided to leave his job in order to produce a documentary on the life on the isolated island of Tory, which is located off the northwest coast of Ireland.
A trip to the location had resulted in Presho falling head over heels in love with it. In 1982, he made the decision to acquire a house on the island, but in the end, he decided to make New Zealand his permanent residence.
After waiting ten years, he received an offer to buy the house. Considering that the offer was just one-seventh of what Presho had demanded, he decided to decline it completely.
When he received a letter from the local administration in 1994 stating that his property was in a dangerous state owing to storm damage, he decided to travel to the island in order to investigate the situation.
When one considers the stone walls of the home, which are one meter thick, this seemed quite improbable.
When he arrived, the house had vanished without a trace, and the hotel that was located across the street had enlarged its parking lot to include the site where his home had been located.
Due to the fact that the absence of the home looked to be so peculiar, Presho experienced a psychological breakdown.
Following a comprehensive investigation, it was discovered that the house had been destroyed by fire as a result of an intentional act of arson.
After bringing the hotel owner to court, Presho was awarded damages for trespass and interruption, despite the fact that it was not possible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Patrick Doohan was the person responsible for the arson.
Specifically, this was due to the fact that it was discovered that Doohan had been responsible for removing the remnants of the home and had benefitted from its total demolition.
According to a comment that Presho made in 2013, “The island is just stunning. I have been under a significant amount of stress as a result of the sad circumstances that have occurred in relation to the property on the island.
At the end of the day, the only thing you can do is forgive everyone since you can’t keep everything you want.
Thanks for reading.😊
