The enigma of Kevin McGeever: developer tells his bizarre tale

Elusive property developer who admitted in court to an eight-month fantasy abduction talks exclusively to Maeve Sheehan

FOR THE RECORD: Kevin McGeever says lies have been written about him. Photo: David Conachy

Maeve Sheehan

Kevin McGeever peered at me suspiciously through the glass hall door of his apartment block in Clontarf. What do you want, he asked, before launching into a tirade against the media who are beating an incessant path to his doorway. The only reason he didn't send me packing is because we met for coffee a couple of years ago, not long after he had emerged gaunt and hollow-eyed from eight months of enforced captivity in a dark container.

At the time, the story of this millionaire property developer discovered wandering the back roads of Leitrim, skeletal, wrapped in plastic sheeting, with outgrown beard and nails an inch long, having been dumped out of the back of a van, was a media sensation and sparked a garda investigation that cost almost €90,000 only to conclude that he had made it all up. McGeever promised to have a big story to tell one day. The New Yorker, GQ and the New York Times were all knocking at his door.