If there was an elaborate conspiracy of the type claimed by a Cork garda it would have involved something similar to what would be seen in Mission Impossible, a prosecuting counsel told the Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Mr Pat McCarthy, for the State, and Mr Blaise O'Carroll, for the defence, began their summing up to the jury in the case of Det Garda JP O'Sullivan (51), of Kingsford Grange, Cork, who denies three charges of criminal damage at Robinscourt, Togher, Cork, the home of Ms Ursula O'Sullivan (no relation).
The detective has claimed there was an elaborate plot to blacken his name by fellow officers. The conspiracy involved 'framing' him for criminal offences, he said.
Mr McCarthy, prosecuting, described Det Garda O'Sullivan as ruthless and his defence as brazen. If there was an elaborate conspiracy of the type claimed, it would have involved something similar to what would be seen in Mission Impossible.
No evidence had been produced by Det Garda O'Sullivan of any motive for a conspiracy apart from a dispute with the Garda Choir and a one over pay. He had met the case in a very bare-faced manner.
Mr McCarthy said Ms O'Sullivan had been harassed by the defendant 'who was a man of some ruthlessness'.
Mr O'Carroll asked the jury to put itself into Det Garda O'Sullivan's position. 'The nightmare that JP O'Sullivan was subjected to could have happened to any one of you.' He pointed out that his client would have spotted surveillance on him by gardai if he had committed the criminal damage at Robinscourt.
Earlier, the deputy general secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), Mr PJ Stone, said he felt the detective was being discriminated against in his claims for overtime and the association was backing him in a District Court case.
Mr Stone said that in April 1995 Det Garda O'Sullivan took an unsuccessful action in the District Court to recover money which the GRA felt was due to him at the time.
The detective also had problems relating to the payment of supplementary overtime. 'It affected members throughout the country, but I was satisfied the situation in Cork was much different from anywhere else because Garda O'Sullivan was the only one not being paid for it. I felt he was being discriminated against.'
The GRA advised him to take another court case, and this was 'active' in October 1996, when he was arrested on the damage charges.
Replying to Mr McCarthy, Mr Stone said he had never known of a case in which a garda who was negotiating for his rights was subjected to 'conspiracy and perjury' by his colleagues.
Mr McCarthy said: 'Because it is inconceivable.'
Ms Amielia O'Sullivan, wife of the accused, said she met her husband 28 years ago in the Polish Choir in Cork and they married 25 years ago.
On October 21st, 1996, she went to Germany to collect her 86-year-old mother, returning via Duesseldorf and Dublin on October 27th. She said she rang her husband at home at 9 pm from Dublin to tell him what time her plane would arrive in Cork. 'I remember resetting my watch to Irish time at 9 pm by the airport clock. I rang him immediately after.'
Earlier in the trial, gardai keeping the accused under surveillance said that he arrived back at his home at 9.15 pm that evening after allegedly committing one of the damage offences.
The court also heard that Ms Ursula O'Sullivan complained of harassment by the defendant after he resigned from the choir and became angry that she did not do so as well.
Judge AG Murphy will begin his summing up to the jury this morning and a verdict is expected today.