A Killarney garda with 32 years' service and an unblemished record who faced a single charge of theft was found not guilty by a jury yesterday at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee.
The garda has been suspended from work, but on full pay for the past four years, since the allegation against him was made. His solicitor Padraig O'Connell said afterwards his client was looking forward to returning to work.
Michael Fitzgerald (56), of the Garda station, New Road, Killarney, had pleaded not guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee on Tuesday to stealing the contents of a plastic purse - €190.18 and a Panadol tablet - at the Garda station in New Road, Killarney between August 6th, 2003 and September 16th, 2003.
He had been station orderly on the night of August 6th when he was the subject of a sting operation directed by Det Insp Barry O'Rourke, the three-day trial presided over by Judge Carroll Moran heard. A casually-dressed female garda sergeant from outside the Kerry district walked into the station in Killarney at about 8pm pretending to have found the black crocodile purse in a car park opposite the station.
Mr Fitzgerald said he remembered a woman in a hurry coming into the station to say she had found a purse, but he was busy at the time with someone else and asked her to wait. She did not and two hours later he found what he said was an empty purse on the public counter and thinking it was not of any great significance pushed it into a drawer, noting it in the station's occurrence book.
He had not followed other procedures by handing it over to Sgt Ray Walsh, or by issuing a receipt, the trial heard.
He was questioned about the purse on September 16th, 2003, and he produced the empty purse to Det Insp O'Rourke and Det Sgt Liddane. Taking the witness box, he denied stealing its contents.