A District Court conviction against businessman Mr Sylvester Rabbitte for failing to comply with a requirement of a police doctor "in relation to the taking of a specimen" of his blood or urine has been overturned on appeal. In the Circuit Court in Dublin yesterday, Judge Raymond Groarke heard that in February last, Mr Rabbitte, of Sutton Park, Sutton, Dublin, had opted in Santry Garda station to provide Dr Yasser Fakih with a urine sample, which turned out to be such a small drop as to have been indivisible into two samples.
When told it was "grossly inadequate", Mr Rabbitte had asked for an injection to "make him go" and Garda Vincent Muldoon had turned on water taps. It had been explained to him that if he failed to give a specimen of blood or urine within a reasonable period he could be liable, on conviction, for a fine of up to £1,000 or up to six months' imprisonment. Mr Rabbitte had failed to pass any more urine and had declined to provide a blood specimen. He had been released from custody an hour after the doctor's arrival.
Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, who appeared with Mr Brian O'Moore BL for Rabbitte, said his client had been charged with refusing or failing to comply with a requirement of a designated doctor "in relation to the taking" of a blood or urine specimen.
In the High Court, Mr Justice Blayney had held this term to mean having done something to obstruct the taking of a specimen, such as refusing to remove his coat or roll up his sleeve for the purpose of allowing the taking of blood or providing a particular quantity of urine.
Mr Hardiman said there had been no evidence of Mr Rabbitte having refused or failed to comply with any such requirement. Simply put, his client had been charged under the wrong section of the Road Traffic Act. He conceded he would have had a prima facie case to meet had his client been charged, under another section of the Act, with refusing the requirement of a garda to provide a sample.
Judge Groarke, allowing the appeal, refused Ms Mairead Cotter, solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions, an application for a case stated to the Supreme Court.