![\"Cahersiveen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/72f254ad-96bb-428b-968c-ff3002b858ba.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGarda\u00ed allege mid Kerry defendant first tried to get into a car that was not his own<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed said they first came upon Maurice O\u2019Connor (26) of Curravaghna, Glencar while on patrol in Killorglin on February 13, 2025 at 4.44am.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Connor was standing at a car \u2018banging on the car window\u2019, Garda Siobhan Dennehy told Killorglin District Court in Cahersiveen on Thursday.<\/p>\n
When approached, garda\u00ed recalled he said, \u201cI can\u2019t find my keys\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard that they checked the car registration and informed the defendant, \u201cMaurice, this isn\u2019t your car\u201d.<\/p>\n
They advised him to ring a relative for help and not to drive, garda\u00ed told the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as we were concerned, that was the end of it,\u201d said Garda Dennehy.<\/p>\n
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\u2019Connor, she told the court.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed testified that when they arrived at the scene, they found Mr O\u2019Connor asleep in the car, which was \u2018in the hedge at more or less a 45 degree angle\u2019.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Mr O\u2019Connor was unsteady on his feet, his eyes glazed and his speech slurred. Garda Dennehy said she could smell alcohol on his breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, at 6.15am, I arrested Maurice O\u2019Connor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
They arrived at the garda station at 6.40am and Mr O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n
Defending solicitor Brendan Ahern argued that the judge could not be sure of the time that gardai had first met Mr O\u2019Connor, as their evidence relied on a vehicle registration system accessible only to garda\u00ed but Judge John King noted he was satisfied with evidence concerning time.<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern then raised doubt over whether Mr O\u2019Connor drove. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if the keys were in the ignition or if the engine was hot,\u201d said Mr Ahern.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to have a smoking gun,\u201d said the judge, adding \u201cYou can infer certain things from the evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern further made his case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State can\u2019t 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\u2019t join those dots, judge. It could have been in the ditch all along.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge King considered this evidence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cahersiveen Court House. Photo by Tatyana McGough<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 17th<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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\u2019ve no eyewitnesses who saw him driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you do have to prove that he was driving,\u201d Mr Ahern replied. \u201cYou have no evidence of him driving, all you have is him asleep at the wheel of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charge for drunk driving was subsequently dismissed.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed allege mid Kerry defendant first tried to get into a car that was not his own Garda\u00ed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23275,72,61,60],"class_list":["post-28219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-anna-zacharies","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219","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=28219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}