A JURY was sent home for the weekend in the trial of a retired superintendent and four serving Gardaí accused of unlawfully squaring away traffic offence summonses for motorists.
After eight weeks hearing evidence at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, the jury, consisting of eight men and four women, had retired at 2pm this Friday afternoon and deliberated for two hours to consider their verdicts.
At 4pm, the foreman of the jury told Judge Roderick Maguire they had not reached a verdict and would be willing to return to court on Monday to resume deliberations.
Judge Maguire told the jury to go home for the weekend and return on Monday morning to resume their duties.
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Earlier, the jury heard closing submissions from barristers for all five accused who all told the court that the investigation by National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) and subsequent prosecution of the five accused was “nonsense”.
The accused retired superintendent, Eamon O’Neill, is charged with 27 counts of engaging in conduct tending or intended to pervert the course of justice when he was a serving in the Mid West region between 2017 and 2019.
Mr O’Neill, along with four co-accused, Sergeant Anne Marie Hassett, Sergeant Michelle Leahy, Garda Colm Geary, and Garda Tom McGlinchey, have denied a total of 39 counts of unlawfully interfering in potential or pending prosecutions involving 26 motorists.
The prosecution’s case, led by senior counsel Carl Hanahoe, is that Mr O’Neill gave “preferential” treatment to people he knew or had a close connection with in trying to get them off potential or pending road traffic prosecutions.
Mr Hanahoe argued that “preference” was entirely different to “discretion”, which the court heard was a power available to Gardaí when using their own judgement on whether or not to pursue a prosecution.
Mr Hanahoe argued that local superintendents lost the power to cancel traffic tickets in 2014 when power was reconfigured to the office of a cancelling authority in Thurles, County Tipperary, after a “penalty points scandal” that was unearthed by Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.
Mr Hanahoe told the jury that the main reason for attempts to get the motorists off was Mr O’Neill’s friendship or close connection with the individuals — adding that these people were not on trial.
Mr Hanahoe produced text messages in court which he said showed that Mr O’Neill was using his direct or indirect connection with the motorists as the reason for quashing their pending or potential prosecutions.
The court heard that sometimes the detecting Garda would be asked in a text if they could “square” the court summonses or if the prosecution was by way of a go-safe speed detection van, the case would be withdrawn in court by a Garda court presenter, Mr Hanahoe said.
The court heard motorists contacted Supt O’Neill asking for advice and discretion. In turn, the court was told, Supt O’Neill contacted Garda Tom McGlinchey and Garda Colm Geary, who in turn contacted the investigating Garda in the cases. Mr Hanahoe told the court that Sergeant Hassett texted some of the detecting Garda members and Sergeant Leahy “ensured the summonses were withdrawn”.
Mr Hanahoe said the four serving accused Gardaí, who had no connection to the cases, involved themselves by trying to “persuade” other Gardaí not to prosecute the motorist, or, in the case of Sgt Leahy, had some of the cases struck out in court.
“The evidence is clear; what was happening was preference – pure and simple, and the appropriate verdict on all counts is guilty,” Mr Hanahoe told the jury.
In his closing speech, Felix McEnroy, senior counsel for Mr O’Neill, said experienced senior Gardaí, including retired Assistant Garda Commissioner Fintan Fanning and retired Chief Superintendent Gerry Mahon, had given evidence at the trial of their concern of relying on text messages in a Garda investigation.
Mr McEnroy said when Mr Mahon found out about the GNBCI probe into Mr O’Neill, he was so “concerned” that he wrote a 17-page letter to the then Garda Commissioner and another letter to the then Deputy Commissioner “outlying his serious misgivings”.
Mr McEnroy suggested to the jury they were “not getting the whole story” from the prosecution and that a previous GNBCI investigation into Mr O’Neill, in respect of completely separate allegations not before the court, “went nowhere”.
Mr McEnroy said Eamon O’Neill told GNBCI that he had legitimately used a long established practice of Garda discretion when the allegations of unlawfully squaring summonses were put to him.
Mr McEnroy said because GNBCI’s first investigation failed to damage Mr O’Neill, it had pursued him in a “vicious” way.
Mr McEnroy said Mr O’Neill was regarded as an “outstanding Garda” who helped end a decade-long gangland warfare in Limerick City that resulted in 23 murders, but, he said the GNBCI probes had left him “destroyed” inside.
He suggested the prosecution case was a “mess”, and that if Mr O’Neill was found guilty it would be “a profound injustice, an assault on the truth, and reprehensible”.
Vincent Heneghan, senior counsel for Garda Geary, said his client received text message from Supt O’Neill asking him to do something and he did it.
“He didn’t think behind it, he did what he was tasked to do. He was a Garda and Mr O’Neill was a superintendent. He did nothing wrong,” said Mr Heneghan.
The barrister said Garda Geary must be highly thought of in the force because he had successfully applied for promotion to the rank of detective Garda after he was suspended on foot of the GNBCI investigation
Mr Heneghan said the role requires the successful candidate to show they have “integrity, decency, bravery”.
Senior counsels, John Byrne, for Garda McGlinchey; Jim O’Mahony for Sgt Hassett; and Andrew Sexton for Sgt Leahy told the jury their clients were not guilty and had been following orders of a superior officer.
All five defence barristers said their clients had done nothing wrong and that the prosecution was “farcical” and “nonsense”.
The trial resumes Monday.