![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4887780_12_articleinlinemobile_Eamon_1_.jpg\" "\\"The")
The witness today said retired Supt O\u2019Neill (pictured) had been ‘to the fore’ of An Garda Siochana\u2019s relentless pursuit of criminals involved in ‘feuding’ in Limerick.<\/p>\nA superintendent today told the trial of serving garda\u00ed and a retired superintendent, accused of wrongdoing, that they were \u201cto the fore\u201d of protecting citizens from gangland criminals, honest, \u201chumble and dependable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Supt John Ryan, Ennis Garda station, formerly Bruff, Limerick, gave evidence at the trial of retired Superintendent Eamon O\u2019Neill, Sergeant Anne Marie Hassett, Sergeant Michelle Leahy, Garda Tom McGlinchey and Garda Colm Geary.<\/p>\n
All five, charged following a two-year probe by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) deny a total of 39 counts of unlawfully interfering in the prosecution of pending or potential road traffic offences, including speeding, driving without insurance, driving while holding a mobile phone.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Ryan, who previously worked alongside Gda Geary and Gda McGlinchey, said they had been a \u201chuge loss\u201d to the force since they were suspended five years ago on foot of the allegations before the court.<\/p>\n
Despite his suspension, Gda Geary had successfully applied for promotion to detective, which Supt Ryan said was a position that awaited him pending the outcome of the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Gda Geary) was good at what he did, he was respected by his colleagues and the community,\u201d said Supt Ryan.<\/p>\n
The witness today said retired Supt O\u2019Neill (pictured) had been ‘to the fore’ of An Garda Siochana\u2019s relentless pursuit of criminals involved in ‘feuding’ in Limerick.<\/p>\n
The witness told the court he knew Gda McGlinchey to be a \u201cstraight person, humble, dependable\u201d and a \u201cgood old-fashioned Garda in a rural area, who knew the community he served\u201d.<\/p>\n
Supt Ryan said retired Supt O\u2019Neill had been \u201cto the fore\u201d of An Garda Siochana\u2019s relentless pursuit of criminals involved in \u201cfeuding\u2019 in Limerick.<\/p>\n
The court was shown mobile phone text messages sent from All-Ireland winning senior Limerick hurler Sean Finn to Supt O\u2019Neill after the hurler was caught allegedly speeding in his native Bruff on May 11, 2019.<\/p>\n
Mr Finn texted Supt O\u2019Neill: \u201cJust got pulled in outside the secondary school in Bruff for speed. Anything that can be done, or am I snookered, kid?\u201d A thread of text messages between the two phones about who the prosecuting garda was and what he looked like, were also read out.<\/p>\n
The court heard Supt O\u2019Neill forwarded Mr Finn\u2019s text to Garda Tom McGlinchey, Murroe Garda Station. A DVD recording of Garda McGlinchey being interviewed under caution by GNBCI detectives on October 7, 2019, was played in court.<\/p>\n
Garda McGlinchey told the investigating garda\u00ed that he had received a phone-call from Supt O\u2019Neill asking if he knew what Garda unit was working in Bruff \u201cas someone had been topped speeding\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Garda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4887789_12_articleinlinemobile_Garda_20Tom_20McGlinchey_1_.jpg\" "\\"Garda")
Garda Tom McGlinchey was described today as a ‘good old-fashioned Garda in a rural area, who knew the community he served’. Photo: Press 22<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave me the name Sean Finn, who I know to be a Limerick hurler. He (Supt O\u2019Neill) asked me to make a request on his behalf,\u201d said Gda McGlinchey. \u201cI spoke to the guard and made a request on behalf of Supt O\u2019Neill,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Finn ultimately paid a fine in respect of the speeding summons. Mr Finn is not one of the five people on trial accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The trial has heard evidence that members of the public can legitimately ask a garda for advice on what to do in the event of receiving a court summonses.<\/p>\n
The court heard Gda McGlinchey received images of court summonses in respect of persons he did not know from Supt O\u2019Neill, and forwarded these on to the prosecuting garda\u00ed on behalf of Supt O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
Asked by GNBCI what the prosecuting garda\u00ed could have done about the summonses, Gda McGlinchey replied: \u201cThere were two things they could do \u2014 they could leave the summons stand, or withdraw it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The court also heard that Chief Superintendent, John Scanlon, Laois-Offaly Division, was interviewed under caution and in the presence of his solicitor as part of the GNBCI probe on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice in respect of two road traffic summonses.<\/p>\n
Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Walter O\u2019Sullivan, who led the GNBCI probe, gave evidence that he and Assistant Commissioner John O\u2019Driscoll, now deceased, interviewed Chief Supt Scanlon, who he said was considered \u201ca suspect\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n
The interview, which lasted 23 minutes, took place by appointment at the offices of the GNBCI, Harcourt Square, Dublin. Mr O\u2019Sullivan said Chief Supt Scanlon, now retired, referred the questioning garda\u00ed to a statement he had prepared ahead of the interview.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Sullivan told the court he contacted Chief Supt Scanlon prior to their interview and informed him he suspected him of having attempted to pervert the course of justice.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Sullivan said that prior to the interview he sent Chief Supt Scanlon an itemised thread of text messages sent between his mobile phone and Supt O\u2019Neill\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
A message sent from Chief Supt Scanlon\u2019s phone to Supt O\u2019Neill read: \u201cEamon, that\u2019s a friend of mine, stopped for a seat belt in Oola. Could you enquire? If it\u2019s too late, no problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked by Felix McEnroy, senior counsel for Mr O\u2019Neill, what he thought of the text message, Mr O\u2019Sullivan replied that in his opinion it was \u201can attempt to pervert the course of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy who?,\u201d Mr McEnroy asked. \u201cJohn Scanlon,\u201d Mr O\u2019Sullivan replied. \u201cMy interpretation is that it was to intervene, to stop a matter being processed or being put on the system,\u201d added Mr O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
The court heard Chief Supt Scanlon\u2019s phone was not seized at any stage and was found to have had no case to answer.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Sullivan denied suggestions by Mr McEnroy that he had pursued Supt O\u2019Neill for alleged attempts to square road summonses after he had failed to bring charges against him in relation to other alleged matters which Supt O\u2019Neill was found to have had no case to answer.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Sullivan also denied when put to him an allegation that, while he was a serving garda, he had asked another garda if he could square\/quash a road traffic summons issued to a motorist. Mr O\u2019Sullivan said the garda was \u201cmistaken\u201d, and that he had \u201czero recollection\u201d of it.<\/p>\n
The trial continues Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A superintendent today told the trial of serving garda\u00ed and a retired superintendent, accused of wrongdoing, that they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,7782,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-177073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-gardai","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}