'It's hard to think how his life could be worse now... he's genuinely destroyed it'

Pundit Brolly: Carey a 'pariah'

- ROBERT HYNES

GAA pundit Joe Brolly said disgraced hurling legend DJ Carey is "a pariah now until the day he dies".

The 54-year-old ex-Kilkenny star was handed a five-and-a-half year jail term after he admitted defrauding family, friends and fans to hand over nearly €400,000, claiming he needed cancer treatment in the US.

Speaking on his Free State Podcast this week, Brolly said: “He's a lost soul.

“I hope I'm not a sanctimonious person or self-righteous person.

“What he did was outrageous and it involved adopting a life of lies and deliberately exploiting people using those lies.

“I understand all of that and he has received a very heavy punishment. But for me, he's a lost soul.

“Here he is this evening in a prison cell, a pariah now until the day he dies, utterly isolated.

“You will say, 'He is paying for his sins; and that may be so. But for me, it's a human tragedy. There is no redemption here. He is too well-known, he is too isolated.