{"id":185194,"date":"2025-12-10T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185194\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T17:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:34:07","slug":"fine-gael-councillor-asked-garda-superintendent-to-sort-speeding-ticket-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185194\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Gael councillor asked garda superintendent to \u2018sort\u2019 speeding ticket, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Fine Gael<\/a> councillor asked a garda<\/a> superintendent to \u201csort\u201d a speeding ticket for him, a trial heard Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Text messages exchanged between Limerick<\/a> County Fine Gael councillor Liam Galvin and Garda superintendent Eamon O\u2019Neill were heard in evidence at the trial of Mr O\u2019Neill, now retired, and four serving garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill and the four garda\u00ed are accused of unlawfully interfering with pending or potential road traffic prosecutions.<\/p>\n

The court heard Mr Galvin, of Ballaugh, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, sent Supt O\u2019Neill an image of a fixed charge penalty notice relating to him being detected by Garda Josephine Falvey, allegedly speeding at 142km\/h in a 120km\/h zone on the M20 on November 12th, 2017.<\/p>\n

The image allegedly sent by Mr Galvin to Mr O\u2019Neill was accompanied by a text message that said: \u201cPlease read, chat later.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Mr O\u2019Neil texted Mr Galvin: \u201cA decent lady\u201d, to which Mr Galvin replied: \u201csort her so\u201d.<\/p>\n

A subsequent text message sent from Mr O\u2019Neill to Mr Galvin said: \u201cHave I ever let you down, kid?\u201d<\/p>\n

A later message sent by Mr Galvin to Mr O\u2019Neill read: \u201cCan you sort that for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill replied: \u201cI\u2019m trying my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

A further message sent by Mr O\u2019Neill to Mr Galvin asked: \u201cHow many have you ATM?\u201d, to which Mr Galvin replied: \u201cNot sure, but lots.\u201d<\/p>\n

A further message sent from Mr Galvin to Mr O\u2019Neill was of an image of a council motion captioned with the words \u201cHa ha ha\u201d, which stated: \u201cI will move to ask the government for a review of go safe vans in Co Limerick.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subsequent text message sent from Mr O\u2019Neill to Mr Galvin said: \u201cIs sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Galvin is not one of the five accused on trial, he has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and he was not arrested as part of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investiagtion (GNBCI) inquiry.<\/p>\n

The five accused \u2013 Mr O\u2019Neill, his wife Sgt Anne-Marie Hassett, Sgt Michelle Leahy, of Roxboro Road Garda station; Garda Tom McGlinchey, of Murroe Garda station; and Garda Colm Geary, of Ennis Garda station \u2013 have pleaded not guilty to a total of 39 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.<\/p>\n

It is the State\u2019s case that Mr O\u2019Neill received requests from civilians and other garda\u00ed to get potential or pending road traffic offences against motorists withdrawn or struck out of court. The State alleges Mr O\u2019Neill forwarded these inquires on to his co-accused to check with garda\u00ed involved in the prosecutions if anything could be done to withdraw or strike out the cases.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill said in a prepared statement to investigating garda\u00ed that \u201cthe involvement of members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, in particular, those of high rank, including superintendents, in dealing with fixed charge penalty notices … is not a criminal offence and never was a criminal offence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Neill also argued that \u201cinternal circulars and reports within An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na allow for such behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cDiscretion is part of good policing, and the cultivation of good community relations, which is fundamental to the work of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement given to investigating garda\u00ed, Ms Hassett said any communication she had with colleagues concerning alleged offences committed by civilians or others was in the \u201cbona fide pursuit of the long established custom and practise, by members of Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, in assisting prosecuting members to exercise properly and appropriately their discretion\u201d in each case.<\/p>\n

She \u201cstrenuously denied\u201d the three charges against her, saying any actions by her were guided by Garda principles. <\/p>\n

The trial, which is in its fifth week, is continuing before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fine Gael councillor asked a garda superintendent to \u201csort\u201d a speeding ticket for him, a trial heard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,3775,61,60,1396,14563,43],"class_list":["post-185194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-fine-gael","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-limerick-city-and-county-council","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185194","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=185194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}