Ex-garda ‘didn’t think’ of obtaining phone records after sex assault claim

A retired garda who is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in his patrol car 13 years ago says he did not think to obtain his phone records for the time to help establish an alibi which showed he was at home on a meal break when the incident occurred.

Thomas Noonan, 60, is being sued by Antoinette Canty, 33, for assault and false imprisonment in a patrol car in Listowel, Co Kerry. He says he “did not particularly” think he should have retrieved copies of his bills to show he made a call from his home phone.

The call, to a colleague who was also at his home on a meal break, was to arrange for them to meet up again. It was claimed this would have established beyond doubt that he could not have been at a location miles from where the alleged assault occurred.