Overview
- Five current and former gardaí — retired superintendent Eamon O’Neill, Sgt Anne Marie Hassett, Sgt Michelle Leahy, Garda Tom McGlinchey and Garda Colm Geary — have pleaded not guilty to 39 counts alleging efforts to derail road-traffic prosecutions.
- Jurors saw a 2018 text from Sgt Hassett asking Sgt Patricia Ryan to "do something" for hurler Pat Ryan after a 135kph-in-a-100kph detection, with Sgt Ryan replying that once incidents are on the system they cannot be deleted and later explaining it was a polite refusal.
- Inspector John Dunne testified he relayed a request, originating with then‑Supt O’Neill, to ask a garda to consider discretion over a mobile‑phone offence, saying such requests were "no big deal" and that he has not been investigated for wrongdoing.
- Superintendent Oliver Kennedy told the court that exercising discretion on a case‑by‑case basis is a normal part of policing and that, in his experience as a court sergeant, matters were often withdrawn or struck out using common sense.
- Prosecutors say O’Neill is the common link across the charges, which follow a GNBCI probe into alleged interventions from 2016 to 2019 that included device seizures; the Limerick jury of eight men and four women is expected to hear the case for several more weeks.