THREE LIMERICK GARDAÍ cleared of alleged road traffic offences have launched legal proceedings to recover compensation.

In March, retired Garda Peter O’Donnell and serving garda members Paul Baynham and Garda Niall Deegan were informed that the case against them was being withdrawn.

The three men were all serving in the Limerick Garda Division in roads policing and had been charged with perverting the course of justice in connection with the alleged termination of road traffic offence tickets.

They all pleaded not guilty and had been suspended since 2020 after a probe by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) began.

The case was associated with that of four serving gardaí and a retired Superintendent, which centred around the “squaring” or non-prosecution of road traffic tickets. 

The five were charged with perverting the course of public justice in relation to the cancelling of fixed charge penalty notice.

They were found not guilty by a jury in Limerick Circuit Criminal Court after an eight-week trial. 

Speaking in March after charges against her three clients – O’Donnell, Baynham and Deegan – were dropped, solicitor Elizabeth Hughes attacked the garda investigation that saw her clients suspended for six years.

She said the “complaint was always without foundation”.

Hughes said gardaí in Limerick Division were treated unfairly as they were singled out for the practice which is widespread across An Garda Síochána.

She said this was repeatedly highlighted to garda management who “could have listened but seemingly refused to”.

Last week, the three men launched High Court proceedings against Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan and the State.

In a statement to The Journal this afternoon, Hughes said the men have “suffered personally and professionally”.

She said there has been a “significant toll on their health and on their families” and that the purpose of the proceedings is to “recover compensation for that damage”.

Hughes added: “It is worth bearing in mind that in 2019, when these members became aware of an investigation being conducted by NBCI, they cooperated fully and a year later they were suspended, without any adequate explanation and, we know now, without justification”.

She said that during the suspension, the three men ”repeatedly pleaded with the Garda authorities for an explanation as to why they were being treated like this”.

Hughes said they were “stonewalled both in the High Court and out of the Courts”.

-With additional reporting from Niall O’Connor