Mick Clifford: Limerick garda trial should never have happened
The registrar spoke in a clear, loud voice before a hushed and packed courtroom. “Count 39,” he said. “Not guilty."
The room exploded in cheering at the finality of the not guilty verdict on all counts for the five defendants.
As judge Roderick Maguire addressed the jury, the cheering died and the sound of sobbing could be heard in the public gallery and among the defendants.
Former superintendent Eamon O’Neill lowered his head onto the bench before him, his hands on his temples.
Garda Tom McGlinchey was ramrod straight beside him, tears flowing down his face.
Garda Colm Geary wiped away his tears.
Sergeant Anne-Marie Hassett (who is also Eamon O’Neill’s wife) and Sergeant Michelle Leahy lowered their heads.
The trial that began on November 11 had come to an end. For the four serving gardaí the ordeal had kicked off almost exactly five years previously when they were suspended from duty as part of an investigation into “corruption in public office”.
Eamon O’Neill’s career had effectively come to an end in May 2019 when he was arrested at 6.30am at the home he shared with Sergeant Hassett and their infant child, on suspicion of releasing information to criminal elements.
That investigation, by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) went nowhere but the contents on phones seized from O’Neill opened up a probe into the “squaring” of tickets for speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt, and using a mobile phone while driving.
The investigation led to the suspensions, to gardaí being interviewed as suspects for up four hours, to the issuing of search warrants on homes as well as phones.
A number of players on the Limerick senior hurling squad were caught up in the investigation.
Eamon O’Neill had a lifetime in the GAA and was a member of John Kiely’s backroom team when he was arrested.
In one case, messages concerning a detection of Jason Gillane for allegedly using a mobile phone were extracted from O’Neill’s phone.
Mr Gillane’s brother, Aaron Gillane, also sent messages about the matter. The trial heard that the NBCI arrived unannounced at the Gillane family home with a search warrant for the house. The brothers were both interviewed under caution but nothing came of it.
In another case, former Limerick City mayor and Fine Gael councillor Liam Galvin was detected for speeding.
He sent O’Neill a message: “Can you sort that for me?”
The two men exchanged messages about the issue on a number of occasions afterwards.
At one point, Mr O’Neill said the prosecuting garda was “a decent lady”, to which Mr Galvin replied: “Sort her, so.”
Later, Mr Galvin included an attachment in his WhatsApp that was a screenshot of an agenda paper for a council meeting.
“I will move a motion at the next meeting that the government review the location of the Go safe vans in Co Limerick,” the agenda stated.
On the message the councillor wrote “Ha ha, ha.”
In a statement issued after the verdict, Mr Galvin said he regretted contacting Eamon O’Neill about it and the matter. He said:
The matter, he said, has been referred to the Fine Gael regulatory committee. Neither Mr Galvin, nor any of the other motorists faced any charges in relation to contacting gardaí attempting to have tickets squared.
There was also the case of former chief superintendent John Scanlon. The trial heard he sent Eamon O’Neill a text.
The NBCI interviewed John Scanlon as a suspect, as opposed to a witness.
The interview, in contrast to those conducted with ranking members, took place in a suite in Harcourt Square Garda Station in Dublin and lasted just 23 minutes.
No notes were made at the interview.
Mr Scanlon, who is married to another high-ranking garda, has since retired.
No other high-ranking garda in the division, or even the neighbouring divisions, or anywhere at all, were investigated for a malpractice that by its nature has to go through such officers.
The only senior officer that the NBCI appeared to have an interest in was Eamon O’Neill.
Nor was any nationwide audit conducted to check whether what had been detected in Limerick was in keeping with the rest of the country. The investigation began and ended in the Treaty City and concentrated on one individual.
Local retired gardaí, politicians, and legal figures all raised questions about proportionality and the necessity for a major criminal investigation into what many saw as a disciplinary matter if it were proven.
After the judge discharged the jury and left himself, a queue formed at the defendants’ bench to shake hands and congratulate the defendants.
Many among them were retired gardaí, but they also included a few off-duty serving members.
In the corner of the courtroom, a knot of NBCI officers stood looking on with what appeared to be a philosophical air. They had been given a job to do which they had performed.
Questions that arise from the whole farrago are not for them.
One question concerns how proportionate it was to conduct a criminal investigation into a matter that ordinarily would have been regarded as a disciplinary matter.
Another is whether the investigation would have occurred at all had Eamon O’Neill not been originally arrested on a premise that turned out to have no foundation.
During the trial, retired chief superintendent Gerry Mahon and retired assistant commissioner Fintan Fanning had given evidence for the defence.
Even the prosecution witnesses, mainly senior gardaí from the Limerick area, began to sound like they were testifying for the defence as they praised the character of those on trial.
Outside Count Number 3, the crowd gathered in a semi-circle and, as each of the former defendants came through the door, a round of applause rang out.
“I never felt pressure like it in my whole life,” Mr O’Neill told reporters afterwards. “It [An Garda Síochána] is an organisation that you give everything you can for it, but if they decide you fall, you fall heavy.”
Read More
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
