Fine Gael councillor asked senior garda to 'sort' speeding ticket, trial hears
A Fine Gael councillor proposed for a council meeting to have GoSafe vans moved while he was at the same time engaging with a senior garda to have a speeding fine quashed, a court heard on Wednesday.Four members of An Garda Siochana and a retired superintendent are on trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the cancelling of fixed charge notices.The trial was shown a series of WhatsApp messages between retired Superintendent Eamon O’Neill and Fine Gael councillor Liam Galvin following the detection of Mr Galvin speeding.In November 2017, Mr Galvin was detected doing 142km/h in a 120km/h zone on the M20 near Patrickswell in Co Limerick. He messaged then Superintendent O’Neill.The two men exchanged messages about the issue on a number of occasions afterwards and at one point Mr Galvin included an attachment in his WhatsApp that was a screenshot of an agenda paper for a council meeting. “I will move a motion at the next meeting that the government review the location of the Go safe vans in Co Limerick.” On the message Mr Galvin wrote “Ha ha ha.” In an earlier exchange Mr Galvin messaged Supt O’Neill: “Can you sort that for me?” to which he received the response “Am trying my friend”.Galvin replied: “Work your powers” before O’Neill messaged: “How many have you got atm”. The court heard that atm stood for at the moment. This is understood to be a reference to penalty points on Mr Galvin’s licence.“Not sure but lots,” Mr Galvin replied. The court was told that the intention was to get the matter “squared” when it came to court.Aaron Gillane The trial also heard that then Supt O’Neill was contacted by a brother of Limerick hurler Aaron Gillane with a request to “square” a Fixed Charge Notice he received. There followed an exchange of messages between the two men and later a series of telephone calls and messages between Supt O’Neill and Aaron Gillane about the matter.The court heard evidence from crime scene analyst Laura Galligan about the contents of Mr O’Neill’s phone which included a number of WhatsApp groups. One group which had 65 members, including members of the Limerick senior hurling panel, was titled LSH.Mr O’Neill, and four serving gardaí, Sergeant Anne-Marie Hassett, Sergeant Michelle Leahy, Garda Tom McGlinchey and Garda Colin Geary, are accused of a total of 39 counts of “engaging in conduct tending and intended to pervert the course of justice”.
