Defendant: Common for gardaí to drink alcohol seized during cases

A former Bray-based garda yesterday said it was common practice for unclaimed drink seized during a Garda investigation to be dished out among the members.

James Murphy was giving evidence on the third day of his trial for an alleged offence of dishonestly appropriating two slabs of Bulmers cider which had been stolen from Centra in Bray on June 20, 2009.

Murphy, aged 24, of Duncormack, New Ross, Co. Wexford, who was a probationary garda at the time, has pleaded not guilty to the charge before a jury of eight women and four men.