{"id":257611,"date":"2026-01-22T08:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T08:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257611\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T08:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T08:11:12","slug":"who-you-know-and-who-you-play-for-key-part-of-prosecution-case-in-limerick-garda-trial-court-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257611\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Who you know and who you play for’ key part of prosecution case in Limerick garda trial, court told"},"content":{"rendered":"

“WHO you know and who you play for\u201d is a central element to the prosecution case, according to the State barrister in the Limerick garda trial.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barrister Carl Hanahoe SC delivered much of his closing statement for the State prosecution today, Wednesday, January 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0Retired chief tells Limerick garda trial of divide between policy and ‘real world’ practice<\/a><\/p>\n

He told the jury that the motorists who allegedly had Fixed Charge Penalty Notices (FCPN) quashed did so because of their \u201cpersonal connection\u201d to retired superintendent Eamon O\u2019Neill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retired superintendent Eamon O\u2019Neill, Garda Colm Geary, Garda Tom McGlinchey, Sergeant Michelle Leahy and Sergeant Anne-Marie Hassett are all on trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each of them have pleaded not guilty to a total of 39 charges, which all relate to attempting to pervert the course of justice over FCPNs relating to road traffic offences.<\/p>\n

These offences are alleged to have occurred between October 2016 and September 2019. They include squaring away of penalties for offences including speeding, holding a mobile phone while driving, having no insurance and not wearing a seatbelt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Hanahoe said that the prosecution case is that \u201cdiscretion is replaced by preference”.<\/p>\n

He said that the motorists referred to throughout the trial were \u201ctreated differently because of who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hanahoe pointed out that of the 26 motorists referred to, all but two did not have to take on penalty points or appear in court \u201cbecause of their personal connections to Mr O’Neill.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the remaining two motorists were \u201cfriends of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hanahoe said that Mr O’Neill making the decision to get involved in the potential prosecution of FCPNs \u201cwas not chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hanahoe recognised that much of the eight-week trial was consumed by legal argument.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been utterly distracted and completely befuddled,\u201d he said in reference to evidence and long debates throughout the trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI say what they were is distractions,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told the jury that: \u201cNone of the accused were detecting members\u201d involved in the detection of the alleged road traffic offences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before closing statements, the final witness in the trial, Fintan Fanning, former assistant garda commissioner told the trial that more evidence is needed for an investigation, aside from text messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like many witnesses, Mr Fanning was shown a number of text messages between Mr O\u2019Neill and others, often with a picture of a court summons attached, and he told the prosecution that he couldn\u2019t interpret messages without more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe text messages, they don\u2019t read well,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would have to be a really thorough investigation. I wouldn\u2019t stick a couple of text messages together and say it all adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was put to Mr Fanning by barrister Carl Hanahoe SC, that Mr O’Neill had sent text messages advising how a motorist might make a false declaration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Fanning said that he wouldn\u2019t have sent text messages like the ones on screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI wouldn’t do it, but I know some people who give advice or common sense advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closing statement of the prosecution is expected to be brought to a conclusion tomorrow morning at Limerick Circuit Court, before five closing statements for each of the accused will be delivered.<\/p>\n

Following that, Judge Roderick Maguire will charge the jury before they begin deliberating in the hopes of reaching a verdict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“WHO you know and who you play for\u201d is a central element to the prosecution case, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26809,42,1396,67397,4580,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-257611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-ennis","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-limerick","11":"tag-limerick-circuit-court","12":"tag-newcastle-west","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257611","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=257611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}