GSOC ‘ignored’ evidence in car crash inquiry, says judge

A district court judge has described a Garda Síochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) investigation into a road traffic incident involving a Co Westmeath couple and an off-duty garda in 2013 as “one of the most one-sided I have ever seen”.

Judge Kevin Kilrane told Sligo District Court GSOC had “ignored” vital evidence and the way they “carried out their function was quite disgraceful”.

The judge made his remarks as he upheld a costs order in favour of Maeve and Fintan O’Brien, Carne, Castletown-Geoghegan, Mullingar, who were charged with giving false and misleading information to a GSOC designated officer in May 2013.

The judge rejected an application from Sligo State solicitor Hugh Sheridan to vacate his previous order and reaffirmed his order made last July.

The judge said GSOC’s “fingerprints were all over the investigation” and he was minded to make an order for costs to the couple.

The charge arose out of a road traffic incident at Loughnavally, Mullingar in June 2011 when a car driven by Ms O’Brien was involved in a collision with a car driven by off-duty Garda Mark Kenny, who was accompanied by a colleague, Garda Ciarán McCormack.

The judge told Thursday’s court hearing one Garda witness told the court he had carried out a search of a part of the road in connection with the alleged incident, when he was really on the telephone telling a colleague to carry out a search. The judge said his account was “appalling and misleading”.