Limerick garda superintendent challenges suspension over alleged leaks

A garda superintendent is seeking to bring a High Court challenge to what he says are "preposterous" and false allegations which have led to his suspension from the force for a year.

Supt Edmund Anthony O'Neill, 53, who was part of the team of officers who secured five murder convictions in the Limerick city gangland feud, was arrested and questioned in May last year over allegations that he leaked confidential information and was in the presence of another senior officer who allegedly snorted cocaine.

He says the allegations are "preposterous and mischievous in the extreme."

Today, Mr Justice David Keane granted Louis McEntagart SC for Supt O'Neill, permission to serve at short notice proceedings seeking to lift his suspension on the Garda Commissioner and the State.

The application was made on a one-side only represented basis and comes back before the court next week.

Supt O'Neill, who is stationed in Roxboro Road, Limerick, says he was awoken in his bedroom on the morning of May 15 last year to find several gardaí around him.

He was taken on a 122-mile trip to Athlone Garda Station where he was questioned in what he said was a "shambolic" interview process.

There were headlines in the national media that day about the arrest and he was later released and served with a suspension notice.

It was alleged he disclosed information whereby he allegedly told a garda being investigated by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) that a listening device had been placed on his car.

That garda has since been charged with serious criminal conduct.

Supt O'Neill says he never did so and fully co-operated with that investigation in relation to the alleged leaking.

He says the failure of the Commissioner to establish the truth is inexcusable.

He says, in an affidavit, the leaking allegation does not form any part of the disciplinary case against him and it must be now clear to the Commissioner that he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

It was also alleged he was present in the Hurler's Bar on January 9, 2019 when a garda inspector colleague was alleged to have taken cocaine in his presence.

In relation to the Hurler's Bar allegation, he says the other officer did not take any cocaine and that officer was "the least likely candidate to take or ingest an illicit substance."

CCTV camera footage showed that height of what is alleged against the other officer is that he is seen wiping his nose.

The officer has not been charged and it was reasonable to conclude there was no evidence of cocaine use, he says.

Not "a shred of evidence exists" to substantiate the original allegations but he was now aware the NBCI had approached senior members of the Limerick hurling panel in relation to the quashing of "speeding and minor road traffic matters."

Supt O'Neill has been involved for a long time in the GAA and in 2017 was appointed one of the county hurling team's back room team.

Attempts are now being made to justify the "wild and completely disproportionate manner in which my arrest and investigation was handled.

"Simply put, the matters now in controversy do not live up to the headlines (about his arrest) in the national media, the source of these headlines being the defendant, his servant or agents."

In his action he seeks an injunction restraining his continued suspension which he claims is affecting his financial and physical health.

He also seeks a number of declarations including that the Commissioner failed to promptly investigate the allegations and that the disciplinary proceedings amounted to misfeasance in public office and/or were vexatious and/or were an attempt to interfere with his professional character and reputation.