A jury’s acquittal of four serving gardaí and a retired superintendent of attempting to pervert the course of justice will have “implications for the future of policing in Ireland”, a retired senior garda has told The Irish Times.
The acquittals may also trigger civil actions for damages against the State by each of the five innocent accused.
The “not guilty” verdicts returned by the jury on 39 charges follow a nine-week trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
It will likely prompt a review by Garda Headquarters as to how internal criminal investigations are conducted, particularly in matters involving discretionary judgment by gardaí rather than clear breaches of discipline or criminal behaviour.
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The acquittals of retired supt Eamon O’Neill, Mr O’Neill’s wife, Garda Anne Marie Hassett, Sgt Michelle Leahy, Garda Colm Geary and Garda Tom McGlinchey confirmed the view of a jury that cultural norms within the force did not amount to evidence of intent to commit a crime.
It was a high bar that, in this instance, the prosecution ultimately failed to meet.
The former Garda commissioner Drew Harris had pledged to weed out any corruption from the force, particularly in light of the so-called penalty points scandal.
The outcome of the Limerick trial ultimately found no evidence of corruption or criminality by the five accused.
The five had been accused of participating in planning the termination of pending or potential road traffic prosecutions specific to Mr O’Neill’s close connection with the vast majority of the individuals involved.
However, the jury disagreed with the evidence put forward by the prosecution, which heavily relied on text messages allegedly exchanged between the five accused.
Speaking after the trial, retired chief supt Gerry Mahon said that in the five years gardaí had waited for the outcome of the trial, many had been frightened to use their discretion when dealing with the public “in case they might find themselves before a criminal court”.
“This case has implications for the future of policing in Ireland. Are we going to police by utter process or are we going to police with humanity and dignity to the public whom we serve?” said Mr Mahon, speaking to The Irish Times.
“I think the jury, in the form of the people of Ireland, have given a clear decision on this.”
The five accused were arrested in April 2021, were charged the following May, and remained under a cloud of suspicion while suspended from the force as they waited five years for their case to come to trial.
Garda Geary and Garda Hassett are awaiting confirmation of their successful applications, while on suspension, to promotion to the rank of Detective Garda and Garda Sergeant, respectively.
The four serving officers have had their six year suspensions lifted.
The arrests of the five came following an inquiry by the Dublin-based Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI), led by Det Chief Supt Walter O’Sullivan, now retired, and then Det Insp Michael McNulty, now chief superintendent in Dublin Metropolitan Region West in Dublin.
During the trial, the prosecution argued that a policy change in 2014 meant divisional superintendents, such as Supt O’Neill, no longer held the power to decide on cancelling traffic cases before they came to court or while they were before a court, as this power was transferred to three superintendents based out of a cancelling authority at Thurles, Co Tipperary.
However, retired senior ranking garda, asst commissioner Fintan Fanning, told the court that Garda policy and directives from headquarters differed and it was his view that after 2014, local superintendents were still involved in decisions to cancel certain cases.
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Another high-ranking garda, retired chief supt Gerry Mahon, had told the trial that, in his view, discretion or “light touch” policing was key to community policing and keeping the public on side.
Former supt Sean Corcoran told the trial he had cancelled “hundreds” of cases in his time.
It was, he said, a practice and custom that long encouraged positive community relations.
Mr Corcoran said he had received requests on an almost daily basis about cancelling cases from Garda Headquarters, Dáil politicians, gardaí across all ranks and ordinary citizens.
Suspected breaches of Garda policy were not criminal matters anyway and even if proven, they should have been dealt with by way of internal procedures, barristers for the five accused argued in the case.
Mr O’Neill’s barrister, Felix McEnroy SC put it in plain terms for the jury: gardaí might sacrifice pursuing a prosecution for a minor infringement as part of fostering positive community relations with the public for important reasons.
“How do you think gardaí find the drug dens or find the guns?” asked Mr McEnroy in his closing speech to the jury.
The trial highlighted the ongoing tensions between everyday operational discretion exercised by gardaí and the formal legal boundaries which govern those powers.
The jury of eight men and four women appeared to accept that the long-standing practice of Garda discretion – the opposite of hard-line policing – did not equate to criminality.
The acquittals raise immediate and longer-term questions for policing and how such matters are treated by headquarters, according to many in the force.
Retired det supt Jim Browne, who worked with Mr Mahon and Supt O’Neill in tackling Limerick criminal gangs, spoke of his “relief” for the five accused and their fellow gardaí following the trial.
“To see them landed before the court on those charges was a disgrace. It should never have happened,” said Mr Browne.
The Garda Representative Association described the GNBCI investigation as a “witch hunt” against the five accused, whose “careers and livelihoods have been decimated and lie in tatters”.
The acquittals undoubtedly underscore the risk of criminalising routine aspects of a Garda culture focused on policing by discretion and with a light touch rather than policing by force.
