Trial of four gardaí and retired superintendent told unit raided stations and homes and seized phones
The court heard that in 2019, a specialist unit began investigating alleged interference in pending or potential fixed charge penalty notices. File Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins Dublin
The trial of four gardaí and a retired Garda superintendent, accused of unlawfully interfering or intending to interfere in potential or pending prosecutions, has heard a national Garda unit raided a number of Garda stations and homes and seized mobile phones, as part of the probe.
The five accused, who have pleaded not guilty to a total of 39 counts, are retired superintendent Eamon O'Neill; serving Sergeants Michelle Leahy and Anne-Marie Hassett; Garda Tom McGlinchey, and Garda Colm Geary, all within the Limerick and Clare Garda divisions.
Detective Sergeant Robert Madden, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, (GNBCI), gave evidence that, in 2019, the specialist unit began investigating alleged interference in pending or potential fixed charge penalty notices (FCPNs).
Detective Sgt Madden said Garda Geary and Garda McGlinchey, received prior notice from a superior officer that the GNBCI were to seize their mobile phones as part of the probe.
John Byrne, senior counsel for Garda McGlinchey, put it to Sgt Madden: “All Tom McGlinchey had to do was make sure his phone was far away and turned off, perhaps at the bottom off a river or lake and well away from the prying eyes of the GNBCI.”
Det Sgt Madden agreed that both Garda McGlinchey and Garda Geary met GNBCI officers by appointment at Ennis Garda Station, Co Clare, and Murroe Garda Station, Co Limerick, and handed over their mobile phones and phone pins to the investigators who produced warrants.
Det Sgt Madden said the warrants were obtained as a matter of routine procedure in criminal investigations; he added if potential evidence is handed up voluntarily it could also be rescinded.
Det Sgt Madden said the GNBCI wanted to seize Garda McGlinchey’s phone because it suspected he had acted as an “intermediary” between then “Superintendent Eamon O’Neill and a prosecuting Garda”.
Det Sgt Madden said he also obtained and executed a search warrant at the home of Aaron Gillane, Patrickswell, Co Limerick, because he said Mr Gillane was under suspicion of having attempted to pervert the course of justice.
Det Sgt Madden agreed with Jim O’Mahony, senior counsel for Sgt Anne Marie Hassett, that the GNBCI’s case “all starts” with Sgt Hassett allegedly communicating with another garda or gardaí for the purpose of terminating a potential or pending prosecution of Aaron Gillane’s brother, Jason Gillane, for an alleged offence of holding a mobile phone while driving, at Dock Rd, Limerick, on June 5, 2018.
Det Sgt Madden told Mr O’Mahony that he and other GNBCI officers “cold-called” at Aaron and Jason Gillane’s home, with a search warrant on October 22, 2019.
Det Sgt Madden said Aaron Gillane handed over his phone and pin number to the GNBCI officers after being informed he was under suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Det Sgt Madden agreed with Mr O’Mahony that “Aaron Gillane was suspected of committing a crime in relation to his brother Jason”.
“It related to perverting the course of justice,” Det Sgt Madden said.
The two Gillane brothers were interviewed under caution by the GNBCI, Det Sgt Madden said.
Sergeant Madden also agreed that search warrants were also executed at the homes of Pat Ryan, of Giggin, Doon, Co Limerick, and Siobhán Scanlon, of Ballingarry, Co Limerick, as they too had been “under investigation” on suspicion of “attempting to pervert the course of justice”.
Mr Ryan and Ms Scanlon also handed over their mobile phones and pin numbers to GNBCI officers.
Sgt Madden also agreed with Mr O’Mahony that, five years on, none of the above named civilians had been charged with any offence arising out of the GNBCI probe.
Sgt Madden, answering Felix McEnroy, senior counsel for Eamon O’Neill, said the GNBCI investigation involved at least 10 detective sergeants supported by other colleagues.
Det Sgt Madden said the probe was led by Detective Chief Superintendent Walter O’Sullivan, who, he said, appointed Detective Inspector Mick McNulty as the “senior investigating officer”, and that the two named senior ranking officers had made all of the “operational decisions” in the probe.
Sgt Madden agreed the GNBCI was a specialist unit which routinely investigated serious crime including, “murder, drugs, organised crime groups, [incidents] at government level, intellectual property crime, cold case reviews, etc.”
Det Sgt Madden also agreed with senior counsel, John Byrne, for Gda McGlinchey, that the GNBCI investigation team had all received briefing documents to “familiarise” themselves with the “complexities and nuances of FCPNs, which the witness agreed he had known “very little about prior to the investigation”.
The briefing documents explained what a fixed charge penalty notice was, how they are processed, and what “guidelines and exemptions” are legitimately used by gardaí “for cancelling FCPNs”.
The trial continues before a jury and Judge Roderick Maguire.
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