Gardaí allege mid Kerry defendant first tried to get into a car that was not his own
Gardaí said they first came upon Maurice O’Connor (26) of Curravaghna, Glencar while on patrol in Killorglin on February 13, 2025 at 4.44am.
Mr O’Connor was standing at a car ‘banging on the car window’, Garda Siobhan Dennehy told Killorglin District Court in Cahersiveen on Thursday.
When approached, gardaí recalled he said, “I can’t find my keys”.
The court heard that they checked the car registration and informed the defendant, “Maurice, this isn’t your car”.
They advised him to ring a relative for help and not to drive, gardaí told the court.
“As far as we were concerned, that was the end of it,” said Garda Dennehy.
But they subsequently received a call at 6am concerning a car lodged in a hedge, about a 15 to 20 minute drive from where they had left Mr O’Connor, she told the court.
Gardaí testified that when they arrived at the scene, they found Mr O’Connor asleep in the car, which was ‘in the hedge at more or less a 45 degree angle’.
The court heard that Mr O’Connor was unsteady on his feet, his eyes glazed and his speech slurred. Garda Dennehy said she could smell alcohol on his breath.
“As such, at 6.15am, I arrested Maurice O’Connor,” she said.
They arrived at the garda station at 6.40am and Mr O’Connor was breath tested following an observation period, returning a reading of 68 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, more than three times the legal limit.
Defending solicitor Brendan Ahern argued that the judge could not be sure of the time that gardai had first met Mr O’Connor, as their evidence relied on a vehicle registration system accessible only to gardaí but Judge John King noted he was satisfied with evidence concerning time.
Mr Ahern then raised doubt over whether Mr O’Connor drove. “We don’t know if the keys were in the ignition or if the engine was hot,” said Mr Ahern.
“You don’t need to have a smoking gun,” said the judge, adding “You can infer certain things from the evidence”.
Mr Ahern further made his case.
“The State can’t prove he got there in his own car, judge. It could have been there for hours and he could have returned to the car. We can’t join those dots, judge. It could have been in the ditch all along.”
Judge King considered this evidence.
Cahersiveen Court House. Photo by Tatyana McGough
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“I could say on the balance of probabilities, he drove the car from A to B. But could I say it beyond a reasonable doubt? We’ve no eyewitnesses who saw him driving.”
“But you do have to prove that he was driving,” Mr Ahern replied. “You have no evidence of him driving, all you have is him asleep at the wheel of the car.”
The charge for drunk driving was subsequently dismissed.
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