Judge directs jury to acquit garda who forged signatures on statements

A garda was put on trial for forging signatures from three householders who reported thefts but the presiding judge agreed to a defence application to direct the jury to find him not guilty by direction of the trial judge.

Judge Gerard O’Brien acceded to the application by Ray Boland, defending Garda Cathal O’Reilly, at the close of the prosecution case at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Garda O’Reilly had pleaded not guilty.

Mr Boland argued that what the guard had done was a matter for internal discipline and not a criminal matter.

Siobhán Lankford, prosecuting, outlined the case against the garda at the outset of yesterday’s trial.

Garda O’Reilly was working then — as he does now — at Mallow Garda Station. Sergeant Emmet Daly was doing a supervisory audit of Garda files in the station on January 6, 2015, when he noticed that the garda handwriting used to write the statement of complaint from a woman whose handbag was stolen from her car was very similar to the handwriting for her signature.

Ms Lankford said that in the normal taking of a statement the guard would take the complaint, write it down in his own handwriting, show the statement to the complainant at the end of this process to make sure the statement was correct and the complainant would then be invited to sign it.

Sgt Daly alerted his superior officer, Inspector Aileen Magnier, about the matter. A further two documents on Garda files were found to have been signed in the name of complainants but by Garda O’Reilly’s handwriting.

Sgt Daly testified when he asked Garda O’Reilly about the matters he admitted signing the statements and was very apologetic.

Mr Boland said there was nothing incorrect said in the statements and they each contained an accurate account of the complaints originally noted by Garda O’Reilly in his notebook when he attended at the scenes of the crimes. Sgt Daly agreed.

Mr Boland said that Garda O’Reilly should have arranged a meeting with each complainant at Mallow Garda Station for the formal taking of the statement and for the complainant to sign it. Instead, he had written up the complaint from his original notes and signed their names himself. Mr Boland said Garda O’Reilly had felt under pressure for time.

Mr Boland also said that the formal statements of complaint were required for the Garda files. However, he said that in each of the complaints in this case — break-in to a car and to break-ins to two houses — no progress had been made in prosecuting anyone and the files were to be closed unless there was a breakthrough.

Mr Boland suggested to Sgt Daly that the view of Garda Daly’s superior officers was that what he did in forging the signatures of three complainants was to save time and was an internal disciplinary matter rather than a criminal offence. Sgt Daly agreed .

“He undersood he had committed a breach of discipline. He is still in active service but not on front line service at the moment,” Mr Boland said.